The Potion Master's Girlfriend 2
by Snape's Puppeteer
Summary: Severus Snape and Lily Evans should be happy. Finally lovers, friends and much more. But the dark lord's return has threatened everything they should be looking forwards to, and the wizarding world is no longer safe. Alt Universe and sequel
1. Chapter 1

**_NB_**_**:** This is set in an alternative universe where Lily Evans never married James Potter and turned him down for that 'one fateful' date. As a result, Snape never became a death eater, Voldemort chose Neville Longbottom as the chosen one, and Hogwarts is a much different place…_

_Intrigued? Read on…._

_All characters, concepts and situation belong to JK Rowling and all rights remain hers at all times. Please do not reproduce this story without express consent of myself, if you do, i will find you, then transfigure your eyebrows into caterpillars and your nose into lettuce. Then you will look like Voldemort, and that would be a bloody shame now, wouldn't it?_

**The Potion Master's Girlfriend 2**

**Chapter One**

Snape didn't necessarily like Quidditch. In fact, he in all honesty hated it. The only time he actually went and watched a game was when he supervised his own team at the training grounds or when was expected to support his team against other houses. Fortunately, Slytherin's team made it something bearable by the various forms of bad play they performed during matches that led to Minerva stomping her feed and calling for the referee to award penalties. It was not fair granted, but nevertheless a form of entertainment that did not involve bludgers going into peoples bodily cavities.

Yes, Snape hated Quidditch.

So why on earth was he at the Quidditch world cup?

He had no interest in whether Bulgaria won or Ireland. The only difference it would make to him would be if Ireland lost he could use it as a punishment remark to O' Finnegan.

Lily, the love of his life, whom he had been reunited with just last year had come in from work saying that James had owled her with some tickets and asked if she had wanted to come with him. Snape had been a grumpy sod and moped around for a few morose hours before Lily added:

"…Oh, and he's invited you too, of course."

As it happened, Lily was rather fond of Quidditch and rather than admit that had no sporting inclinations of his own, he had accepted and watched her owl that sticky-up haired buffoon and accept.

And here they were. Surrounding by house elves riding llama's, merchandise being thrust in his face for 'bargain' prices and jostling idiots with painted faces whooping and rattling noise makers.

Yes, the entire stadium was full of everything he hated.

Lily, who was buying an 'IRELAND' shamrock badge and smiling, turned to him.

"…Want one?"

"No." he responded, smiling, trying to appear enchanted by the entire place and atmosphere "…I'm not one for badges."

"A hat then?" she asked.

"No thank you." he replied a bit more stiffly.

"Sev, come on…its like once in a lifetime to get tickets to this kind of thing, try and enjoy it…and at least join in with the cheers when someone falls off their broom."

Snape's eyebrows raised:

"…I can do that." he agreed.

She smiled and pinned the shamrock badge to her green beret.

"…Right, our seats are…along here…" she began reading the ticket. "…somewhere to the le-"

"LILY!"

Snape shuddered as James Potter came dashing towards them, a seat of green shamrocks and face paint as Sirius sidled behind wearing no teams colours-thankfully, Snape added as an after thought.

James grabbed Lily and gave her a hug so all that his rosettes that were shouting the players names in rapid, yet out of turn succession made a dreadful tinny din.

Snape sniffed dismissively as Sirius rolled his eyes at James who pulled back admiring what Lily was wearing.

"You look sensational, Evans." James Potter grinned. "And you're supporting my team! I say we sit together and insult the Bulgarians."

Lily laughed with a faint trace of unease.

"…I say I sit with my boyfriend, and you sit with yours." she smiled, winking at Sirius who chuckled.

"If you insist on breaking my heart on this special night." James mock wept and sat down.

"These are pretty good seats." Lily said, admiring the view. "…how did you get them?"

"Twisted Ludo Bagman's arm. He came by Puddlemere looking for sponsors and I happened to mention that I knew of a few 'friends' that were looking for him. He advised I kept quiet and gave me some tickets."

Snape was watching the crowds, something he always did at Quidditch games, usually looking for rule breaking.

He had to stop himself once or twice from telling two elderly fans to stop kicking the chair in front and a middle aged man not to pick his nose.

He scanned the stadium across from him and saw a fair few ginger haired people banded together and guessed that they were Weasley's, and a few spots down…

"Potter, give me your Omniculars-Quickly!" Snape urged as he saw a trio of silver haired people chatting to the minister of Magic, Pius Thicknesse.

James unhooked them from his neck and handed them to Snape. Snape looked at them and zoomed in with a tap from his wand.

Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy were sat chatting happily to the black haired minister who looked as though he was a reanimated corpse from the paleness in his face and the grey tinge under his eyes.

Snape slowly set Omniculars down and swallowed a few times.

Recently, those unplanned steps back into his own memory of last year when he had inadvertently helped revive the dark lord under duress of Lily being killed. Luckily…and surprisingly James Potter and Sirius Black had rescued him and Lily from certain death, although Snape had undergone terrible injuries from torture.

He couldn't be sure, but he knew the Malfoy's were involved somehow.

Draco's suspension from the school after attacking Neville Longbottom, known as 'the boy who lived' provided the blood that was so desperately needed for the potion to revive the dark lord. Had the dark lord marked him and his family for other things?

Was there a way to prove it?

The memories of that night…they were returning.

Closing his eyes and feeling a cold wave of nausea flooding up his chest he remembered waking beside Lily in the dead of night, the sheets soaking with cold sweat and his heart trying to escape, and her gentle touch on the back of his neck, soothing him back to sleep.

"…Sev?" she began.

"…hmmm?" he asked.

"…What is it?" she asked softly, her hands wrapped around his cold, clammy fingers.

"…heights…I don't like heights."

"You're lying Severus." she sighed pulling the Omniculars away. "What did you see?"

Snape swallowed and looked wanly at her.

"…The Malfoys, are over there…"

She looked into the crowd and her eyes met them as she back at him as if she had simply been gazing around.

"Do you want to go?" she asked softly.

"What can they do here?" he asked. "Nothing, I'm not running."

Lily nodded and stroked his cheek.

"Just try and enjoy it. I hear that they have a really good seeker, the Bulgarians."

"Oh?" Snape asked weakly.

"Yeah." Lily nodded, checking her programme. "…Viktor Krum."

"Durmstrang, am I right?" he asked, checking the glossy programme.

And correct enough he was shown a picture of the Bulgarian seeker standing formally in the Durmstrang brown uniform with a man in dark robes beside him clapping him on the back and roaring in pride at the camera with a clenched fist.

He looked familiar, he had no idea why.

"Durmstrang?" Lily asked.

"Yes, it's a school out somewhere around Russia, that kind of region. I'm not entirely sure." he muttered, looking at the Ireland seeker who was a light built, typically Irish man called Lynch with a charming smile and a wink.

James was hanging over the balcony wolf whistling the last of the Veela at the pre-game show and offering him a ride on his 'broomstick' while Sirius pulled him back trying to bring his shoulders up to his ears.

Lily was scanning the auditorium.

"…Are you 'on duty'?" He asked, inclining his head towards her.

"…Am I ever 'off duty?'" she smiled and looked at him.

He wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed it.

"I suspect that is what I get for dating an Auror." he sighed breezily before smiling half playfully as Bagman announced the Irish's 'act'. A troupe of gold scattering leprechauns.

She chuckled, but he noticed her hand was on her wand. Willow, and 'swishy' as Ollivander had dubbed it.

"That reminds me, we've got this newbie coming in next week. Mad Eye said she has talent but is a clumsy little 'sod'." Lily sighed, rolling her eyes.

"…Anyone I'd know?" he asked watching as the spectators scrambled for the gold being scattered around like huge, metal confetti.

"Nymphadora Tonks?" Lily replied.

Snape tried to recall the name but it was lost in time amongst countless faces.

"No. Nobody I know." he confirmed.

"GOOD EVENING! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" Began an enthusiastic, buoyant voice that boomed magically through the stadiums. "And welcome to the 422nd Quidditch world cup! IRELAND VERSUS BULGARIA!"

There was roars of support and loud cheering as Bagman, just visible next to the Malfoys and the minister bowed to the crowds. He was dressed in his usual Wimblebourne Wasps kit.

'_Too small for that beer gut_' thought Snape dismissively

"BUT! Before we start, a few words from our recently elected Minister of Magic, Pius Thicknesse!"

The crowd had become subdued, there were cheers but they had no warmth, and seemed rather forced. Snape did not applaud, and neither did Lily who appeared to be studying him with a set jaw and distrustful eyes.

"Wizards and Witches, ladies and gentlemen." he began sleekly. "We are united tonight by our love of sport and by the pride of two nations. And it is my honour to release the snitch that will kick off tonight's game. I wish both sides the best of luck." and with that he held up the golden snitch and let it free.

The game moved so fast. So much faster than Snape was able to keep up with. He watched in relative discomfort as Lily, Sirius, Potter and the entire crowd moved as one.

Celebrating as Troy scored the first goal of the match.

Lamenting when Ivanova equalized.

The general concern when Lynch was injured by some sort of faint that Krum did and the moment when the referee had to be kicked for responding to a Veela's advances at the sideline which resulted in a minor fire.

Snape had felt very proud for avoiding the Veela altogether, he knew what they could do to men…well, men who didn't know occlumency at least.

The game had ended (mercifully) fast and had ended shortly after Krum's nose was broken by a bludger, and Krum had caught the snitch, but not for the win.

He watched with mild amusement as the Irish team carried the concussed Lynch around on their brooms to celebrate their success.

Soon enough, people began to leave the stands as Potter cheered and whooped, joining in songs that insulted the Bulgarian team's captain's mother and swigging from passing flagons of fire whiskey.

Snape walked arm in arm with Lily as she tried to get the fact he enjoyed it a tiny bit out of him.

All Snape wanted to do was leave and get to their rented tent as soon as possible so that he could avoid dealing with the Malfoy's as they exited.

But as he crossed the muddy and souvenir trampled fields towards the tents he didn't see even a slither of silver hair.

He saw a few students gathered around here and there from school.

The former keeper from the Gryffindor squad who greeted Potter with great enthusiasm and exchanged some banter. He saw that Diggory boy who was flanked by the man he assumed was his father. Arthur Weasley and several of his children including to his mild surprise, Longbottom and Granger. He also saw Seamus leading some form of trailing dance that involved holding on to the person in front's waist and kicking out to the side.

Finally, they reached their rented two person tent.

Potter, who had had a sip of everyone who passed him's drink was obnoxiously drunk when they reached the tent neighbourhood and insisted on kissing both Lily and him good night. Lily smiled, turned him around and nodded for Sirius to lead him straight to his own bunk and to magically seal the flap shut.

As Lily turned Snape to enter their own tent. The flaps opened and spoke in a bossy welsh accent:

"Password?"

"Painted Quail Egg." Lily said eloquently.

The flaps of the tent became still and they walked in.

Snape had never stayed in a tent before…not a muggle one, nor a magical one. But what lay before him looked similar to a bedsit but with cloth walls, a single bedroom with bunk beds.

Snape's last hope, the last thing that had kept him going through that mind numbingly dull 'sport' where grown men rode around on brooms trying to insert large round objects into each other had been dashed.

A cuddle with his face buried in her hair as he fell asleep.

Denied by two single beds that lay on top of each other.

Sighing, he collapsed into the armchair next to the tent's support.

She reached up and undid her hair from under the beret and he watched as her beautiful red hair cascaded down her back like a river of loose curls into her black polo neck shirt.

He couldn't resist.

He went up behind her and wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in those curls, wrapping his hands around her waist possessively.

He heard her chuckle and felt her reach up behind her to stroke his hair.

"…You need some rest. You've been on edge all evening." she softly said.

"As if I can sleep without you beside me." he muttered, planting kisses on her shoulder. "Those twin monstrosities to the idea of carnal love prevent me from holding the one I love while I sleep…"

"…The bunk beds?" she translated. "Is that what has your wand in a knot?" she smiled.

He nodded and moved to kiss her neck.

She idly flicked her wand at the bunk beds and as he watched, he saw them transform into a double bed.

Smiling genuinely for the first time all night he turned her to face him.

"…and this is why I love you."


	2. Chapter 2

**The Potion Master's girlfriend 2**

**Chapter 2**

Snape was awoken a few hours later, his arm wrapped around the blankets that used to be Lily before he realized she was gone.

He sat up sleepily and rubbed his eyes.

"…Lily?"

Lily was pulling on her boots with her wand in her teeth as loud noises, screaming and flashes were visible through the canvas.

"Get dressed!" she enthused.

He got out of bed straight away and pulled on his coat, trousers, shoes and cloak before grabbing his wand and tapping the buttons so they all did up rapidly.

He wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not but knew that if Lily had spoken so directly to him that this was something urgent.

She grabbed his hand quickly and pointed her wand at the entrance of the tent which sprang open at once.

The pair looked around at the sight of pure chaos around them.

Tents were on fire, people were running around screaming, casting hexes, protective charms and trying to disapparate.

People were being elevated in the air, screaming as their nightclothes flew over their heads, muffling their cries.

'_Levicorpus' _thought Snape guiltily. One of his own creations, taught to Mulciber during a history of magic class.

But who was casting it?

It appeared to be what looked like marching Dementors.

No…Not Dementors.

Death Eaters.

They looked at one another and both said:

"Leave, I'll handle this!"

Snape looked at Lily who had fire in her eyes and redness in her cheeks, primed for the fight, no trace of fear on her face.

"They want you dead, and I'm an auror." she shouted over the fracas.

"I've been practicing counter curses since before you were making midnight raids!" Snape retorted.

Lily looked torn between arguing and just getting out there in the battle.

"Ministry and aurors are everywhere…let me help!" Snape insisted.

Lily nodded and before he could react her wand was out of its leather holster and casting a counter-curse at the oncoming wall of death-eaters.

Snape whipped out his wand and cast a similar curse and saw a death eater fall to the ground.

A flash of yellow light zipped past his head as he saw Lily cast a second curse that wrapped the death eater responsible in chains only for another tall death eater in a mask to break them a second later.

Within seconds back up had arrived in the form of ministry officials who had arrived to disperse those who could disapparate swiftly.

"SEVERUS!"

He turned around to see Arthur Weasley running towards him, his bald spot glistening in the firelight with sweat.

"Neville's missing! Help me find him!"

"There are death eaters here, Weasley!" snapped Snape. "The dark lord is back and you bring him to a bloody quidditch match!"

"HELP ME FIND HIM!" Arthur demanded, panic in his aged eyes.

Snape looked to Lily who was now working with 3 other ministry officials to round up the other wizards and witches who were running towards the woods.

He wanted to follow Lily and make sure she would be safe but knew his duty as a teacher was to find a student, even if it was the summer holidays.

He gave Arthur a half anguished look and then set off looking for him.

"I don't know how to find him." Arthur panicked, rubbing his eyes under their glasses. "He was with Ron and Hermione and then they just got separated and…"

Suddenly, there were even greater screams of terror as a large green skull, made entirely of smoke appeared in the sky.

Snape looked at Arthur and at once they both disapparated to the site under where it had been cast.

Snape felt nauseous in a way that had nothing to do with disapparation, this was all to do with the fact that in the last wizarding war, every time he had heard of a dark mark being cast, or saw one being cast-he feared it was Lily who had been killed.

The Dark Mark…He-who-must-not-be-named's mark was always cast after a murder by a death eater or by he-who-must-not-be-named himself had finished off someone who had opposed him.

He knew Lily was fine, she was a few yards away with other members of the ministry, but if it was Longbottom…

No…

No, it wouldn't be.

Reappearing in a forest clearing they found Neville Longbottom sat on the ground looking dirty and as if he had been trampled on, holding his wand.

Arthur dashed towards him in an attempt to hug him in relief but Snape held him back.

"Severus! What the-?"

Snape had his wand trained on Neville.

"He could be imperiused."

Neville stood up, still holding his wand.

"Sir, I'm not! This man turned up and cast that in the sky!" Neville bleated, his lightening scar red with stress.

"Drop your wand, step away from it and sit down." Snape ordered softly.

Neville reluctantly let his wand fall from his hand and sat down on a set of muddy rocks amongst the trees.

"Where is Ron and Hermione?" Arthur asked in a panicked manner.

"We got separated near the butterbeer stand." Neville replied, his round cheeks ashen and cold looking.

Suddenly, more people popped into appearance. Pius Thicknesse, the new minister for magic arrived rather promptly as did Mad Eye Moody, the retired auror who seemed drawn to a fight like a moth to the flame, Lily, a tall, thin-moustached suit wearing ministry official and Ludo Bagman looking panicked and alarmed.

Snape moved to Lily, his wand still trained on Neville.

Lily looked quizzically at Snape then gathered what he was attempting to do.

"Who cast the mark?" asked Mad Eye moving towards Neville, picking him up, not too roughly by his collar. "Did you see him boy?"

"Yeah…a man, tall, had a long coat on…my wand, he used my wand."

"A likely story!" declared the man with the moustache. "Check his wand!"

"…Well, obviously, Bartemius if someone stole the boys wand the spell would show up." snarled Mad Eye.

"I don't think he's imperiused." Lily began. "He's too together to be imperiused."

"Trust me, I'm not imperiused…" Neville began helplessly. "I was running to catch up with Hermione and Ron and I got knocked out. Woke up here, my wand was in the mans hand and as soon as he saw I had seen him he ran away."

Snape lowered his wand cautiously and looked to Lily, his black eyes flicking up and down her body to look for injuries. She seemed unharmed.

"…Was he a death eater Neville?" Arthur asked.

"I think so…I mean, he wasn't wearing their uniforms, but he cast that mark right? Only dark wizards cast the dark mark, right?"

"We should get rid of it." Mad Eye growled and cast his wand up at the sky.

A short burst of light later and the mark had gone leaving a clear, summers night sky.

Snape looked to Pius Thicknesse who was standing there with a remarkably calm, almost interested manner.

"Minister, seeing as you happen to be here for this…unusual occurrence, don't you have anything to say on the matter?" asked Snape coolly.

Pius simply smiled and shook his head.

"Pranksters and the imagination of a schoolboy who has had perhaps a touch too much butterbeer before bed." he sighed, his hands clasped in front of him. "Come on Neville, let's get you back to your bed and we can forget about this dreadful night."

Lily stared at the minister with incredulity.

"Sir, with all due respect, he's just seen what he believes to be a death eater, perform the dark mark, with his own wand. We should test the wan-"

"As much as I appreciated your testimony on the return of he-who-must-not-be-named, Miss. Evans, I must ask you to hold your tongue for now. A full investigation shall take place, tomorrow. When we have all had time to calm down and think."

Mad Eye's glass eye was twitching as if it were watching a metronome as a tic appeared in his cheek.

Lily looked fiercely at the new minister for magic as Snape looked to Neville who looked rather more bewildered than usual.

Just then Percy managed to appear with Hermione and Ron in tow.

"…found them father." he muttered.

Hermione ran to Neville, wrapping her arms around him.

"Oh Neville! We thought you'd been…" the rest was cut off by her hugging him.

Snape looked to Lily who sighed and rubbed her head.

"I suggest we search the area…" Mad eye insisted. "Evans, you come with me, Loxley-Mr. Crouch…I suggest the west, Hassell, Porter-The north.."

"I'll take the-" Snape began.

"No, Severus. You go with Arthur…see if y'can't knock something up for Longbottom."

Snape set his jaw. He resented being 'the med wizard' when Lily was sent into peril.

"Sev, please…" she began softly. "…he looks in a bad way. Make that thing you made for me when I had the flu?"

Snape sighed and nodded.

Anything Lily said would ensure he did as he was told and not argue. Looking to Ron who was pacing awkwardly around Hermione and Neville, still hugging on the floor he looked to Arthur.

"…To your tent."

As Snape followed Percy Weasley, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom back to their tents. Arthur fell into step beside him.

"…how are things with you and Lily?"

"Fine." Snape replied flatly. A late night discussion about his current love life was not on his agenda.

Arthur didn't seem to find anything else to say after that until they reached a rather motheaten looking tent, flagged by the Weasley twins.

"Daddy!"

The youngest Weasley, Ginny came flying out from between the tent flaps to embrace her father.

"Alright Ginny…Alright, no harm done." he said reassuringly, patting her red hair.

"…Professor Snape…What are you doing here?" asked one of the Weasley twins looking more than put out at this unexpected intrusion.

Snape directed his attention straight to Arthur.

"I shall prepare something and be on my way."

Neville was retired to his bunk by Ron and Snape summoned his potion making kit by magic.

As he stood next to the candlelit table mixing a draught for a dreamless sleep he mulled over today.

The tall man in the long coat casting the dark mark into the sky.

Who was that…which death eater was that, and which death eater did not wear the uniform tonight?

Was it he who must not be named and Longbottom had simply been too afraid to look properly?

And then another thought, had lucius been amongst those death eaters tonight?

What had been their final plan?

Was it simply to frighten the wizarding world by casting a dark mark over the quidditch world cup, or was it the return of the dark lord once and for all.

Pettigrew had said that the dark lord wanted a quiet return, and the way Thicknesse was going about it, it certainly would be if he wanted to hush up every single event. He was worse than Fudge for covering up things.

In a moment of mild amusement, Snape considered changing his subscription from the daily prophet to the quibbler.

At last the potion was ready as he walked towards Neville's bunk with the goblet.

"Longbottom." he called.

Neville padded towards him in his striped blue pyjamas and accepted the goblet before drinking it without hesitation.

Snape had a shred of pity that fluttered pathetically in the breeze of his thoughts for Longbottom as this modest looking boy carried the world on his shoulders.

That potion must have been a godsend to him after tonight.

After he had drunk the potion, bid a less than fond farewell to Weasley's he went back to his own tent finding that Lily had had the presence of mind to seal it before dashing into the fight.

As Snape sat in the armchair waiting for Lily's return, the questions spun around his head long into the night, and it was at the first rays of dawn that Lily returned.

Her red eyes, her aching bones, her weary face. She had been searching all night, and from the disappointed glimpse on her face, it had been a fruitless search.

Knowing their portkey was not until noon was a blessing as she took Severus' hand and led him to the bed, falling straight into it, fast asleep.

Snape wrapped a protective arm around her tired shoulders and cuddled her until her breathing gave way to light snores.


	3. Chapter 3

_**NB: This timeline does not follow the timeline of the books and rather follows future timeline of the film to be more accessible to those who have only seen the film versions. Thus, Google would be available at the time that Lily was using it.**_

_**If anachronisms are a problem to the reader, I suggest they avoid reading The Goblet of Fire (chapter 2) in which Dudley throws a play station out of the window, before the play station was actually invented. ;) **_

**The Potion Master's Girlfriend**

**Chapter 3**

As Snape lined up for the port key with Lily he felt this overwhelming surge of anger from her.

Not at him. No fear.

He had been the model partner.

He'd woken her up with a breakfast of bacon sandwiches and a cup of hot coffee and packed up the tent ready for inspection by the rental company. She had got dressed in a frustrated fashion and re-buttoned and unbuttoned her cardigan so many times that she eventually got frustrated and left it altogether.

Snape handed in their documentation for the tent to the tired looking wizard who had a string of muggles hanging around him wishing people 'Merry Christmas' and he agitatedly handed them an old cooking spoon that was burnt at the end.

The portkey would take them to just outside cokeworth and from there they could disapparate into Spinner's end.

Lily had pretty much moved in with Snape since just after his incident at Azkaban. She felt he needed the extra care and Snape felt no inclination to ask her to leave as he relished every second of her company.

As the school closed over the summer holidays, Snape found himself not returning to Spinner's end with a heavy heart and a great deal of foreboding as he and Lily would be 'just like a normal couple'.

So far it had been good.

Lily knew a great deal of household spells and had managed to get certain age related stains from the ceiling, got rid of neglected cobwebs and managed to make the place look brighter. So he decided to do his best and repair the more male orientated repairs. The ceiling tiles in the bathroom so it didn't sound like someone was having an all night pee when it rained. And the dry rot in the back bedroom where his parents used to sleep.

When Lily first turned up, she saw that Snape had left the back bedroom as an airtight tomb of dust with his parent's clothes in there. That he had simply locked the door and pretended it didn't exist.

Lily couldn't blame him. His relationship with his parents had been strained and towards the end barely a relationship.

With his permission, Lily went into the bedroom and began sorting out muggles artefacts from magical items and donated the least threadbare of the clothing to charity and binned the rest until the room was just a stale smelling spare bedroom.

Lily didn't find any secret photos of Severus, nor did she find any trinkets, first pairs of shoes, blankets, or anything that a parent would usually keep of a beloved child. In fact, it was almost as if there had never been a child in the house.

Snape returned to the room a few hours later when it was empty, gave a conservative nod and then left to continue working on the house.

Lily began to understand why Severus had never had a proper relationship with his parents.

By the end of the first fortnight, the house was more hospitable than it had ever been.

Curtains hung, clean and complete at every window. Brass shone. Shelves were dust free and even the upholstery on the furniture was cleaner, and without holes.

It was not as comfortable as Hogwarts, but it would do for six weeks a year.

The pair apparatus outside of cokeworth into some miserable rain far from the warmth that was yesterdays evening at the game.

"Well, welcome back." he sighed as he looked in his black rucksack for an umbrella.

Lily sighed and rested her head on his as he put up the muggle device. A reminder that they were now pretending to be muggles in this muggle place.

"…if it was going to be nice here today, I was going to make a picnic and go to our river."

Snape half smiled and kissed her head before walking her through the bricked alleys to the familiar, yet more welcoming door he had faced alone so many times before.

As they got in, Lily shed her coat on the coat stand and placed her wet beret on the hat rack. Snape shed his muggle, black overcoat and dumped his rucksack beside the door deciding to unpack later.

"…I'll make us some tea." she sighed.

Snape stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"…You sound as discontented as she did…" he replied softly. "…relegated to the kitchen to soften HIS mood. You're not going to be a downtrodden housewife afraid of the volcanic eruptions of the man of the house, not one more woman will share that fate my darling."

She turned to him.

"Sev, you could never be him." she comforted, her green eyes softened.

"Come to the living room and tell me what's really upsetting you."

He led her to the living room and knelt down in front of the fire, he cast his wand at the empty, cold fireplace and seconds later it was alive with warm, crackling flames.

She looked down and sighed.

"…Can you feel it? Something is going on, and it's all around us, and there is nothing I can do to stop it."

Snape sighed and stroked her cheek tenderly.

"Of course I can feel it. It's been around long before the dark lord returned. "

She put her hand over his.

"The dark lord has returned and it's not even made the headlines of the daily prophet."

"…perhaps we should order the quibbler." Snape half joked.

Lily appreciated the joke and smiled weakly.

"…Dumbledore will have a plan for this. Remember what he said to us at the end of term supper? That when we go back, he will have a plan for all of this."

Lily nodded, half placated.

"I trust him."

Snape nodded.

"So do I."

"Not long now. A few more weeks and we will be back at Hogwarts." she sighed.

"…this place is safe Lily. It's unplottable and impenetrable-"

Just then a bright white light spun through the window with its heavy white lace and landed near the fire grate.

It was a patronus. A phoenix patronus.

"Meeting. Grimmauld place, Islington, tonight. 7.30 pm. Dress in muggle attire."

It then dissolved.

"Impenetrable?" smirked Lily.

"…except for patronuses…" he half smiled.

"Hmmm, I'll need to find a road map of Islington so I can apparate directly." he began, getting up.

"Why don't you check Google?" she asked/

"…goggle?"

Lily giggled.

"Google. It's like map of everywhere. On the computer."

"Lily." he began, raising his hand to stop her. "When I visited your house when we were 14. Your father had a brand new television set and I looked at it and it exploded!"

"Well, come to the library, they have internet access, and I can show you how it works. I learned about computers when studying advanced muggle studies during my auror training."

"In-tra-net?" he asked, his eyebrows close together in confusion.

As Lily sat down in front of the big white box and sat with her fingers poised on what looked like a decorative piece of wall strapped to the desk with wires, Snape looked over her shoulder at it. Trying not to be THAT magical that he destroyed it.

"Right, Sev…this is the internet…right? It's a series of people all connected and talking to each other at once."

"The noise must be unbearable!" he replied looking at the page that was now moving like a television.

"No…" she chuckled "It's all relative, I mean, its all written down, then sent onto the internet so that individual people can find it by performing a search."

"…oh." Snape replied, pretending to understand. "…So, how does this map work?"

"Well, Google gets the maps by checking each individual map of the areas it covers. And you type in a postcode and it tells you how to get there. But we don't have a post code so we'll type in the actual address: 'Grimmauld place, Islington.'"

"…Post-code?"

Lily smiled at Sev and kissed his hand that was on her shoulder.

"…See! And it zooms in on where we want to go!"

Snape looked closely as a crude grey map appeared detailing where they were meant to go.

"Aha…right, in that case, no problem." he nodded, memorizing the map.

"So…you need a map to disapparate?" she smirked.

Snape looked at her with a smirk.

"…No, I just like to know where I am going to land. I've heard stories of people landing on muggles and I'd rather not get the ministry involved. From what Dumbledore did, it seems to be hush-hush."

Lily nodded and began typing into the computer and suddenly, another grey box at the side of the big grey box started making a noise.

Snape was startled and almost grabbed his wand accusingly before realizing it was shooting out a piece of white paper with the same map on.

"…How the-?"

"The computer tells the printer that it wants the drawing copied…so the printer has very special…well, drawers…which etches the document rapidly, copying it."

"Oh."

Snape was rather impressed, the muggles seemed to be coping rather well without magic he felt.

Taking the copy from the printer she gave the wispy old lady on the reception desk some muggle money and put the map in her purse.

Snape was more pleased than anything to get out of there without damaging any electronics.

"Com-pu-ters…" Snape repeated. "…are they only available in libraries?"

"No, most homes have one now too."

Snape looked alarmed and worried that next door had one


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

After disapparating to where Grimmauld place was they were greeted by a set of doors that did not quite match up. Number 12 was not there. Number 11 and 13 were present but number 12 was absent.

Clearly this building was unplottable. Snape didn't know that Black had that sort of presence of mind.

Outside the communal garden they had apparate in; the Auror that had been present during Lupin's imperius curse was standing outside. His magical blue eye spinning rapidly in every direction. It fixed on the railings and bushes that covered their arrival and he began limping forwards.

"It's about time you arrived. You're seven minutes late."

"We had things to attend to." Lily responded softly. "This is quite last minute you know."

"And being an Auror, you should live minute to minute!" Mad Eye Moody snarled and fumbled in his pockets before producing a creased, hand written address.

No sooner had Snape and Lily finished reading it, number 12 Grimmauld place had come into view. Pushing 11 and 13 out of the way.

"Come on, we're already eight minutes late." Mad Eye snarled and limped forwards. Snape looked at Lily who was hiding a sardonic smile and followed. Snape had a childish urge to mimic Mad Eye's limp but decided against it as he knew Lily was rather fond of Mad Eye.

As they ascended the stone steps. Mad eye let them inside where a rather dank looking corridor lay ahead.

The wallpaper was peeling from the walls; the carpet was wafer thin and there was a distinct smell of a place that had not been lived in for sometime.

The only thing penetrating the stench was the smell of home cooking.

"Who else is here?" Lily asked.

Mad eye replied by opening the kitchen door at the end of the corridor.

Snape peered in from behind Lily.

It looked as if the whole Weasley clan were here which would explain the cooking, Miss. Granger, Longbottom. Shacklebolt. Mad Eye Moody stood aside to let them pass as Mrs. Weasley rushed forwards to embrace Lily.

Snape stood aside, getting as close to the wall as he could as Molly's ample frame took up most of the space in the cramped kitchen.

The place looked rather dilapidated and judging on the recently clean smell that somewhat failed to subdue the damp 'unlived-in' aroma that was familiar in Spinner's end at the beginning of every summer, Snape surmised this was not Black's permanent abode.

"And Severus. How nice to see you!" Molly said, though the warmth she conveyed Lily was not quite as ardent with him.

"…Indeed, Mrs. Weasley." Snape coolly responded.

He saw the Weasley twins snicker and their younger brother nod to them and he had a good idea it was due to the fact their potions master was there…with his girlfriend.

Ah, but of course. He had all this to come.

At last years 'heroes' dinner where he, Potter and Black were briefly celebrated he had ensured that he had exchanged pleasantries with Lily, and treated her as he did all other members of staff and honoured guests.

Of course, the whole school was buzzing with the news by the next day and every time Snape limped out of his room he was beset by wolf-whistles and 'Get in there, sir'-Gryffindor were 150 points behind Ravenclaw in winning the house cup by the end of term.

Resisting the urge to slam the twin's heads together as he usually did in these circumstances; Lily guided him to sit opposite Shacklebolt who was reading a piece of parchment.

There was tenseness in the air, as if everyone was waiting on Shacklebolt to say something. But the wizard's dark eyes were focused on the parchment.

"…Well, Kingsley?" asked Arthur.

"…He'll be out of St. Mungo's tomorrow."

"Lupin?" asked Lily expectantly, shedding her fawn cardigan.

"Yes." he responded.

"About time too." Black remarked.

"It was only an imperius curse. Those things clear up within a few hours."

"Did you see what Mad Eye did to stop him from trying to kill Lily?" Potter asked. "I went to visit Moony in hospital and he was speaking out of his ear!"

The twins were laughing again.

"A slight exaggeration." Black responded. "The important thing is that he's better."

Mad eye shrugged.

"I did what needed doing, he's lucky it was all reversible. I know curses that would curl your hair!"

"…I could do with that." Lily smirked.

"I don't need it." smiled a purple haired witch from the end of the table.

Snape had a feeling he may know her, but couldn't be sure.

"Enough shop talk." Snarled Mad Eye. "Down t'business. Fact is…Voldemort is back."

Snape shivered inwardly at the mention of the name but remained focused.

"And we all know what his next port of call will be."

His gnarled hand clasped on Longbottom's shoulder.

Again, the boy looked thoroughly dejected.

"Fortunately, we have one of the greatest wizards of all time on board…and a great many more too."

"Where is Dumbledore?" asked Black.

"He's attending to some business." Mad eye responded. "Order business. The Order of the Phoenix was an army of Wizards who fought against the dark lord during the first wizarding war. Black, Potter, Weasley, Lupin, Evans, and I, including Professor Dumbledore were amongst the first…including that little squit Pettigrew. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of good people in that first war…Marlene McKinnon, the Prewetts."

Mr. Weasley grasped Molly's hand tightly. "…And Alice and Frank Longbottom…two damn fine fighters they were too, let me tell you that!"

Neville looked even more dejected.

"We all knew Voldemort would be back…and here we are."

"So…are we going to be inducted?" asked Ronald Weasley, second youngest of the Weasley clan.

"Certainly not!" shrieked Molly. "You're not even of age!"

"We will be!" declared George. "Next year."

"And I am!" said Percy indignantly, who had been hidden behind a book until this point.

A small family argument grew to which Potter watched as if it were a quidditch final.

"Tell them Arthur! Tell them its suicide for their age!"

"But you're going to fight and you have kids!" Ginny responded shrilly.

Soon, the whole table was practically fighting. Red hair was shaking and fingers were being pointed.

Just then a booming voice filled the kitchen.

"SILENCE!"

Albums Dumbledore stood in the doorway.

Silence was immediately enforced as he stepped in and casually picked up a spare flagon of pumpkin juice before downing it in one.

"…dreadful thirst, disapparated from Hogsmede."

Snape was glad to see him.

At least some sort of order would be restored.

"Glad you got here, Professor. There was almost Weasley-cide." Snape silkily replied.

"…I'm afraid those under 17 will have to adjourn elsewhere." Dumbledore began, almost reading the mood of the room. "Wizarding law is even outside of my considerable reach."

Nobody would dare argue with Dumbledore and wisely the children of the room padded upstairs leaving Percy Weasley to join where Neville had been sat.

"I am sure Alastor has given you the brief introduction of the order. Severus, Nymphadora, you are new to this, as are you Percy…"

"Nymphadora Tonks." Snape began. "Hufflepuff."

The name had just re-familiarized itself with him.

"Oh! You remember me Professor?" she asked brightly.

"Yes…" Snape began pensively. "…you destroyed 12 cauldrons in your first year."

"Nearly failed my exams." Smiled Tonks, not the least bit disturbed by Snipe's retort.

Lily sighed.

"Ignore him, he's testy because he had to use a map to disapparate."

"Is this a social chit chat? No! This is a meeting of the order of the phoenix!" Mad Eye snapped.

Dumbledore smiled benignly and sat at the head of the table before leaning forwards.

"I heard about what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, and having heard Neville's testimony of the events I have no doubt that it was death eater work. Something irks me somewhat…" he began, scratching the tip of his nose delicately. "The death eaters present that night were intended to frighten and scare-hardly the entrance Voldemort wanted-don't you think?"

There was a murmur of agreement around the table.

"In fact, it somewhat goes against what Pettigrew said, am I correct Severus?"

Snape nodded.

"It seems to me that Voldemort is using the fact Fudge is still bleating on about his recent reappearance to mock the idea that he is back and is in fact using this negative publicity as a parody."

"You mean the Wronski feint?" Potter asked, his eyes peering over his glasses.

"Precisely. He is in fact ensuring that nobody takes anything that Fudge says seriously by openly displaying death eaters at the world cup where thousands of Wizards would be…"

Snape tried to process this.

"…he is being deliberately 'active' to make people think it is all publicity and that he isn't really back-thus a scare tactic?" he asked.

"Yes. And the people have reacted as hoped." Dumbledore confirmed.

Dumbledore reached into his coat and pulled out a copy of today's Daily Prophet.

It read:

"_Fear mongering Fudge behind mock Death Eater Attack: _

_Minister says: A shameful show"_

"And people have fallen for this?" Tonks asked incredulously. "Even my dad knows something is amiss and he never reads the papers."

"A person is smart, people are stupid." Snape remarked coldly.

"Indeed." Dumbledore agreed. "Though you can't blame their desire to pretend that the greatest threat to the wizarding world is still absent."

"What is the plan, Professor?" Shacklebolt asked. "I assume you have a plan."

Dumbledore leaned forwards, his fingers meeting at their tips.

"The dark mark was cast to draw others to their cause. Cast amidst, but away from the chaos of the death eaters. It was a definitive sign that the dark lord had returned, but not to the public. Lord Voldemort is fashioning himself an army and is welcoming back old faces, recruiting new ones. By force if necessary."

Snape swallowed nervously.

"Well, they won't want me anymore. Remember? I messed up their party."

Lily put her hand on his arm.

"Indeed Severus. But he will be looking for new recruits. As you are all members of the order-it is most likely that you will be tracked and monitored."

"But Professor." began Percy, his eyebrows meeting above his horn-rimmed glasses. "They can't know, the order is secret."

"Yes, but any one of you who has links to me will be suspect. The Minister, who I suspect to have ties to Voldemort himself…"

"Surely not!" Percy gasped.

Dumbledore nodded slowly.

"I have reasons to suspect him."

"That's good enough for me." Mad Eye growled softly.

"But Mad-Eye…we work for the Ministry, and the order. Won't we be in trouble?"

Dumbledore looked to Tonks.

"You will all need to employ Occulmency." he said softly.

Snape looked to Lily.

He knew she had the skill, she had demonstrated it last year.

"Professor-I haven't-"

"I am aware of it Percy. Your father, I believe, if memory serves, studied the skill."

Arthur nodded before clasping his hand to his son's shoulder.

"I'll take care of it."

Snape looked to Dumbledore quizzically.

"…Percy joined the Ministry last year. I suggest you take 'sick leave' until you are familiar with Occulmency." Dumbledore responded.

Percy nodded.

"All that we can hope to do is to learn what Pius Thicknesse is hoping to do. At the school, we shall continue to protect the students, and educate them. With Professor Lupin as Defence against the dark arts tutor, the students will not go without magical protection and education. At the ministry, I would suggest you listen as much as you can, and tell as little as you can."

Tonks sat back in her chair. Her hair turned from purple to black. Shacklebolt looked to Black who was scratching his beard.

"…and for those of us who are neither students nor ministry officials?" Black asked.

Dumbledore surveyed him briefly.

"…I would suggest caution. You and Mr. Potter were both at Voldemort's rebirth; I would say that makes you enemies of the death eaters."

Potter laughed theatrically.

"Death eaters? They're sissies in hoods. I can take them."

Snape rolled his eyes.

"Is this before or after you've finished prancing around on your broomstick?" he asked.

Lily strengthened her grip on his arm, in warning.

Potter's eyes narrowed.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you'd be throwing yourself into battle while you were sitting behind your cauldron."

Snape leaned on the table, turning to face Potter.

"And I had no idea that puddle mere United were going to have a chaser casting curses mid match because the thought he saw a 'sissy in a hood'."

"Stop it." Lily said sharply. "This isn't the time."

"Indeed." Shacklebolt nodded.

"You are all familiar with speaking Patronuses, those who are not; please learn from someone who is not." Dumbledore began. "And let me know what you hear…please."

There were a few nods of agreement, silent acceptance.

Snape understood the silence.

It was the silence of acceptance, that Dumbledore, the only Wizard any of them truly trusted had confirmed Voldemort was back.

Though four of them had seen it with their own eyes, it took Dumbledore to announce it to make it real.

The dark lord, scourge of the wizarding world was back.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

On the night of July 31st, Lily set about repacking the trunks they had brought home on the last day of term. Severus was reading in the nearby chair as she folded clothes neatly into the trunks by hand.

It seemed that being muggleborn that even now she could not resist doing things the muggle way, even if it was the little things.

"Packing the trunks reminds me of when I was at school. Every summer, I would try and pack my trunk slowly, savouring it. I was so excited to get back to school I tried to drag out this last muggle task so I could enjoy being a witch the next day."

Snape smiled weakly.

"My trunk was packed all summer…"

Lily folded a black tie over her hand and looked to him, watching him read in the candlelight.

His black eyes shone in that candlelight. His hair framed his pale face as he studied the book she had brought for him the day before in Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley was no longer the same place it was the year before.

It was colourful, it was noisy, it was busy. But not in the same way. Shoppers went around smiling, and the daily prophet boasted that Gilderoy Lockhart was still abroad-which made her smile faintly as she knew the truth, but something above the hubbub and general choas of the narrow little alley was a feeling of frozen fear. She had felt it last time too, the panic. The still, and very frantic panic.

Severus had felt it too. The way he stayed near to her elbow, his hand on his wand, his eyes following everyone who he felt had stared a little too long. It was as if he was made of elastic, so tense and so highly strung all day.

He had shown interest in a book on the latest potions and she had bought it for him to take his mind off things as they met their contact in the Leaky cauldron. A man called Diggle.

They had never met before but they had exchanged news.

There had been precious little sightings. No news. Nothing. Even Mad Eye who saw and heard everything and had been out and about in the field training Tonks, the new auror had heard nothing.

Worryingly still, neither had Dumbledore.

The lack of news made the air stale, like a late summer thunderstorm that had not yet broken.

The brown skin under Severus' eyes were testament to yet more sleepless nights.

Only last night she had caught him at the window, his wand withdrawn only to see the problem was a drunken man trying to find his way home near some dustbins.

He had lost weight, barely sleeping, it pained her to see him this way.

It was almost as if with Voldemort's rebirth that he lost some part of himself, or it had sickened away within him.

"…Sev, why don't you have an early night darling?"

"I'd like to finish the book." he said softly. "Besides, I doubt sleep will be on my mind."

"We don't have to disapparate until three." she reminded.

"I never did sleep late."

Lily put down the jumper she was folding and walked to him. She put her hands on his head, smoothing down the black curtains than hung limply around his face.

He looked up at her.

She sighed and stroked his cheek softly with the back of her hand.

He closed his eyes and held her hand closely.

"I sometimes wish that we could just disappear. Go into hiding." he sighed, looking up at her.

Lily held his hand tightly.

"I know. I know you do. But not even Voldemort himself would dare walk into Hogwarts."

He sighed again, deeper this time.

"I will no doubt, as I always have, feel safer when I am through Hogwarts protective doors. But Voldemort's shadow extends beyond them. His voice echoes in the Daily Prophet's non-committing headlines. Through the hisses and whispers of the students…"

"Draco." she guessed.

He looked at her quickly, then nodded in agreement.

"If the boy has the dark mark, has worked for Voldemort, he will be in the inner circle. After all, it was Longbottom's blood that brought him back…Draco being the provider."

"And he is still only a student. He must obey the rules." Lily reminded softly.

"…what if he tries to convert other students? The cruciatus? Imperius?"

Lily looked into the wide, black eyes that were creased with worry.

"I think you'd notice." she smiled, stroking his hair. "…he's a fourth year…no where near enough magic…"

Severus closed his eyes, resting his head against her stomach.

"When are you expected back at your 'day job'?" he sighed, changing the subject.

"Monday." she smiled. "Monday. So you have me all weekend."

"And you'll be back every night?" he mumbled.

"Promise. As soon as the shop closes."

"That will be something to get me through each day."

She smiled weakly and stroked his hair again.

"I promise you something. As soon as the shop closes, I will be in your chambers and I will be with you. I'll be your peace and your comfort. I'll be your shelter against everything in the world. I promise….Sev?"

Severus had fallen asleep against her stomach.

Smiling, she flicked her wand as the packing did itself and the lid closed quietly. Getting him into bed without waking him was something that would test all her skills as an Auror.

Apparating at the gates of Hogwarts the next day at Three there were several men and women already flanking the two tall pillars that were adorned with the gargoyles that had become familiar markers of 'home'.

Dumbledore was standing with Mad Eye a few metres away. Dumbledore's robes whippling in the unseasonably windy weather.

"Severus. And Lily." he began. "I trust you know Dawlish, Williamson."

"Yes, we've worked together before." She nodded. "Batch of poisoned Amortentia was being sold on the black market. Killed three witches and a wizard before we found the source."

"They'll be working with you. You're Hogsmede surveillance. Keeping eyes and ears out for any gossip or rumour that may lead to any additional information." Moody explained quickly.

"It can never hurt to have an extra set of ears. Severus, with your permission. I need to see you in my office whilst Lily discusses her mission with her colleagues." Dumbledore added.

Lily nodded and smiled briefly to Snape in reassurance, squeezing his hand gently.

"See you after the feast."

Snape looked to Dumbledore as Lily walked away, leaving Moody behind, his hands resting on his staff.

"The other staff are waiting." he growled. "And this is of great importance."

Snape noticed that his face looked unusually grave, even for him.

"…Is she safe?" Snape asked nervously.

"She'll be as safe as Dragon Tartare at a Vampire buffet. Come on…"

Once assembled in Dumbledore's office, Snape silently registered the other people present. Flitwick, Sinistra, Sprout, Vector, Hagrid, McGonagall, Trelawney, -everyone was present. Making the usually spacious office look cramped.

As Mad Eye stood behind Albus' chair, Dumbledore sat down and looked up at the people before him, surveying them briefly.

"I trust everyone had a good holiday?" he remarked without interest.

Everyone made a murmur of agreement that subtly indicated confusion as to this staff meeting in such hasty circumstances.

"…Those of you who are eagle eyed, you may have noticed that Charity Burbage is absent." he continued calmly.

Snape looked around, as did a few others before looking back at Dumbledore.

"Is she sick?" asked Pomona Sprout softly.

"She is missing, Pomona." Dumbledore said softly. "After she failed to respond to my owl a few days ago, Aurors were dispatched to her house in Upper Knotly. She had not been present for some time, and the owl I sent was still waiting patiently for a reply indicating that the owl cannot divine her location."

Snape felt a cold chill go through him, and judging by the squirm he saw from a few others they had imagined the same fate.

"Which rather indicates she's either dead-" Mad Eye pronounced gravely. "Or prisoner."

"She is a muggle studies teacher…it doesn't make sense." came a somewhat shaky voice.

Snape looked over to see Lupin, thin, slightly better clothed than last time he saw him, and a bit more beaten up, looking at the headmaster rigidly.

"Indeed." Dumbledore nodded.

"We saw no signs of struggle. No broken doors, no hex marks, no spell damage. Her clothes are all in the wardrobe, books still on the shelves, the milkman has continued to deliver his milk. There are no suggestions of a struggle." Mad Eye stated.

"But that is what they did last time." Muttered Flitwick "They did things quietly."

"But Charity is a teacher here at the school, students and parents will notice if a teacher goes missing without a trace!" McGonagall said quickly.

"…Perhaps that is what he wants." Mad Eye mumbled.

"…Sorry?" she asked.

"Influence over the kids. If the big bad wolf growls loud enough people will know he's around but pretend not to hear. The kids will start to realize Voldemort is back, tell their parents. Their parents will dismiss their fears but the kids will realize. When they're good and scared…why not convince them to join."

"Join the death eaters?" Sneered Snape. "The children? What would he want with 500 under aged wizards?"

Dumbledore looked up at Snape from his desk.

Snape looked up and looked at the others looking similarly solemn.

"…You mean, he would want to influence them to join the death eaters?"

"Slytherin house is known to have its dark connotations, Severus. No offence." Flitwick remarked.

Snape rubbed his eyebrows.

"…Slytherins may not be as happy-clappy as Hufflepuffs, nor as sharp as Ravenclaws, Filius." he said pointedly. "But they are not so stupid as to embrace the dark lord simply because he has a shadow that is cast over the school!"

"Severus is of course, right." Dumbledore nodded. "But a shadow can be ominous. We need to protect this school now, more than ever. These doors, this magic will no longer keep our students safe. We are fighting the unknown once more. And now we must be strong."

The words fell dustily to the floor as those present assimilated their meaning.

Voldemort was not only at the door, he was creeping in. He was banging at the glass, whispering into their ears.

"Tonight I will give an assembly. I will speak with the students. Pomona, Filius, Minerva…Severus, you will need to keep a close eye on your students. As must you all."

Snape watched as the staff all nodded and agreed.

"…Albus, what of Chastity Babbage? What of her class? Who will take it over?" Asked Professor Binns, the ghost who taught History of Magic who had been floating in the tapestry behind Dumbledore.

"I am yet to find a suitable candidate. Now, If you would all like to make your way to your accommodation. Minerva, the castle has moved your quarters even closer to Gryffindor Tower and Severus, you have an extra three feet in your quarters."

Snape gave a curt nod and then looked to Lupin who was staring at the floor.

"Severus, Remus. If you wouldn't mind staying behind." Dumbledore asked softly.

Snape looked back to Dumbledore and waited as others filed past him, muttering to one another about the possibility Charity was dead.

Snape knew Charity Burbage only slightly. Making pleasantries at dinner and staff meetings but he knew that Professor Sinistra was close to her as was Sybil Trelawney who was now sobbing into her glittering, beaded scarf muttering about the hanged man card she had drawn only a week ago in a tarot reading.

When Lupin drew closer to Dumbledore's desk he looked at them both above his glasses.

"As you realize, you are both in considerable danger."

Snape nodded. He realized this only all too clearly. Lupin too seemed to be under the same impression. His eyes were looking red and sleep deprived. The grain of a few days without shaving peered from under his pallor and scar tissue.

"Remus, you are a target. Not only for what you are, but also for who you are. You are a teacher here, you are a member of the order, and you are a past target. The curse placed on you by Pettigrew nearly-"

"I know what it did." he muttered with a brief flick of the eyes up to Snape who stood nearby. "…I will be careful."

"Severus, would you be so kind as to continue the task I gave to you last year for Remus?"

"I will." He nodded.

Lupin looked at him with something short of shock, perhaps he was not expecting the kindness to be extended again given that he had almost killed the love of his life.

"Alright. You may leave." Dumbledore nodded.

Lupin left quickly, his hand on his wand holster.

Snape looked to Dumbledore.

"Headmaster? You wished to see me?"

"How was your summer, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"It was acceptable, headmaster,"

"And Lily, is she well?"

"Yes, headmaster."

"I did not get a chance to speak with you both at the meeting." he began, getting up and walking to where Fawkes was now stood.

"No, headmaster."

"Are you and Lily enjoying your time together?" he asked, opening a small brass tin at the side of the perch.

"Yes. Headmaster."

"I was surprised to hear you were cohabiting." he smiled, picking up a piece of fresh cuttlebone and offering it to Fawkes who accepted with a soft noise.

"Well, it seemed safer for her to be with me, and I enjoy her company-" Snape began, his hands firmly crossed behind his back.

"You must forgive the directness of this question, Severus. But are you and Lily expecting any good news?"

"…Good news-Oh! No, no headmaster. Not at all."

"Ah good. It is not a good time to be planning a family." Dumbledore nodded before sitting back down and flicking his wand at a pile of parchment.

"What I actually wanted to talk about was Draco Malfoy."

Snape felt his skin shift, and goose pimples prick up under his robes.

"Yes. Headmaster."

"As you may, or may not have heard, the Malfoy's have 'moved' to another country meaning that Draco will no longer be contining his education here."

"I did read that."

"Indeed, but as you realize, that is total twaddle."

"I guess that, headmaster."

"The fact remains that the Malfoy family, as well as the Goyle family and the Crabbe family…as well as other families that are synonymous with the title of death eater are still in the country and to evade detection have simply put out the story they are no longer present-moving abroad, enrolling their children in Durmstrang. I am certain that the Malfoy's are keeping their son at home and tutoring him privately. You shall not need to worry about them."

A flood of warm relief passed through Severus, but also an icy stab of worry that his fears about the lies in the daily prophet were founded.

"Yes, headmaster."

"Is there anything else you wish to discuss?"

"No headmaster."

"In that case, you may leave." He smiled weakly before taking the first parchment off of the pile.

Snape went to turn to leave when a niggling concern reared its head once more.

"…She is safe, isn't she, headmaster?"

"Very safe. Lily is one of the finest Auror's I have ever had the fortune of dealing with. She would hex a bluebottle fly if it flew too close to you."

Snape's lips flickered briefly before he turned to leave. He trusted Dumbledore implicitly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Warning: The following chapter contains adult themes**

**Chapter 6**

The feast was slow going that night. The empty chair that Charity Burbage had left behind was stark against the lively backdrop of Hogwarts colours and students noticed it.

Even the first years joined in gossiping with their newly made friends to discuss what it could mean.

Although the meal was perfunctory, and as usual up to standard there was a lull about the place that the usual frivolity did not fill.

Snape occasionally glanced at the hour glasses to gauge the time, and looked towards Dumbledore who was speaking in his usual cheerful manner to the other members of staff. Only Lupin seemed to share Snape's misery completely.

Over the summer holiday he had acquired a few new scars, despite being in St. Mungo's capable care and yet seemed to be thinner.

Snape considered that the treatment for the curses he had undergone may been painful but he seemed to have endured despite it.

Over the course of the meal he surveyed the students now in his year and saw nobody that attracted his attention. Of course, the main object of his attention was Lily.

She had arranged to meet him in his quarters after the banquet and although he was technically on call that evening, to deal with the younger students if they were distressed by the sudden move from home, he had got a bottle of fire whiskey and intended to chat to her about Charity, and what Dumbledore had said.

A familiar clinking sound of a knife on a goblet meant that the headmaster was ready to speak.

"Good evening to you all, returning students and our new learners. Welcome to another year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As you may have realized, we have an empty place at our table this year. Professor Burbage, our muggle studies teacher has unfortunately been taken ill with a mild case of Dragonpox and is currently in St. Mungo's undergoing treatment but rest assured, your Muggle studies classes will continue with replacement tutors until her recovery…"

Snape raised his eyebrow at how smoothly the lie rolled off of his tongue.

"But onto brighter things, your beds are warm, your tummies are full, and there is much learning on the morrow. So off you pop to bed! Good night!"

Snape was impressed by the shortness of the speech and glad that he had not interjected a quick note about Voldemort breathing down the neck of the school before the youngsters went to bed.

As the prefects led their houses to their dorms Snape was stopped by Lupin.

"What is it Lupin?" he asked impatiently.

"I'm sorry for what happened."

"As am I, it is in the past." he mumbled carelessly, watching the hall empty.

"I mean it. Really sorry. I would never hurt Lily intentionally, you know that."

"Yes. I know that." he nodded again. "Good night."

"She and I spent time together," he said quickly, grabbing Snape's arm. "You can't hur-"

"Alright Lupin!" he said sharply, removing his hand. "I have things to do…go and get some rest, you look like death."

Lupin nodded and walked towards the other end of the table.

Lupin was behaving very strangely. It was almost as if the treatments had sent him slightly psychotic but seeing as he was discharged, it was probably just a temporary state of affairs.

As Snape surveyed the final students leaving the hall, he saw Granger, Longbottom and Weasley all speaking to another student. The Diggory boy.

Keeping a keen eye on them they finally dispersed and went towards their common rooms.

Walking towards his chambers in the dungeon he scattered a few dawdling students and deducted points from a Ravenclaw who was gossiping with a Hufflepuff against the statue of the one eyed witch.

He had two desires. A drink of fire whiskey, and to lie on his bed while talking to Lily.

Tomorrow was a busy day with a full schedule. He had not been chosen to take on Charity's lessons-something he was secretly pleased about as he would have very little to say about Muggles in general. His father had been a muggle and had been nothing short of a thorn in his mothers side and a monster to himself. He was certain that not all muggles were this way.

Lily's parents had been very nice Muggles. Her mother was a woman who prided herself on playing the piano, baking butterfly cakes and taking care of her two daughters. Her father was an 'office worker' and always came home from work, dropping his briefcase and reaching for a hug from his two girls. He always greeted Severus with a smile and questioning if he was staying for dinner.

Unfortunately, he rarely got to stay for dinner as his mother forbade him from mixing with muggles despite his own father being one.

Taking home one of Mrs. Evans' butterfly cakes in his pocket and unwrapping it in his room was like taking home a piece of heaven. It smelled of Lily's kitchen, like butter and icing.

The last time he saw Mrs. Evans was when Lily was kissing her on the cheek as she boarded the Hogwarts express in her sixth year, she had squeezed his forearm and asked him to look after her.

A stab of guilt wounded his stomach, though it was staler now than it had been. It was an old trick from his twisted conscience.

Descending the tight corkscrew staircase to his chambers he found a familiar scent amongst the smell of new shoes, starched 'off the coat hanger' uniforms and puerile belches. It was the smell of her hair.

Quickening his pace he tapped the lock quickly with his wand and walked in.

The room was aglow.

Candles shimmered softly, the smell of perfume and a stoked, wood burning fireplace assaulted his sense of smell, and the warmth of the crackling logs embraced him in from the chill of the dungeons.

Sat, in a forest green, lace night gown, was Lily. A glass in each hand and a smile on her face.

"Firewhiskey?"

Snape smiled and sat down beside her, leaning in swiftly for a kiss.

She was taken aback by the sudden show of affection but soon leaned back in and kissed him softly.

When he pulled back, she smiled and put down the glasses before stroking his cheeks.

"What was that for?"

"Just because you're here. And I can."

She smiled and stroked his neck.

"Well, I'm always here."

He savoured the fact for a moment as she poured the fire whiskey.

"Not too much for me, my love…" he yawned breezily, reclining back into the chair. "I'm on duty."

"Duty?"

"Homesick first years, nervous second years, rambunctious seventh years…"

"Do Slytherins get homesick?" she asked wryly offering him a glass of the amber liquid.

"Well…I didn't." He stated with a smile, taking the glass. "But then again, I wasn't homesick. I WAS home."

Lily clinked her glass against his and took a sip. He followed suit and looked to the ceiling. It's usual array of cobwebs were missing. In fact, the whole chambers looked considerably tidier than they usually looked when he returned after the summer holidays.

"Have you tidied?"

"I dismissed the elf. Told her it was okay."

"You'll have upset her. Considering they're happy to serve humans they get awfully fussy if you break their rules." Snape sighed putting his glass down.

"Yes, but you have me now. I can do it."

"Charity Burbage is missing." he said suddenly.

Lily paused for a moment, put down the bottle and nodded.

"I know."

"Dumbledore has no idea where she is, they're saying murdered, or imprisoned. The Crabbe's. Goyle's and Malfoy's are all missing too, though they said they've gone abroad."

"I know Sev." she enthused, holding his hand. "They told me."

Severus looked into her green eyes and looked down to his lap.

"He's getting closer and the ministry aren't even acknowledging it."

"Fudge is in St. Mungo's." Lily began. "Thicknesse had him placed in the ward for spell damage."

"With Lockhart?"

"Yes. He said he took a bad confundus charm."

"The only person in the ministry who had any credibility has been side-shunted to the nut house." Snape elucidated. "Brilliant."

"We still have Dumbledore." Lily reminded.

"And they will say he is aging and senile." Snape sighed.

"Sev, Dumbledore knows what he is doing."

Snape wanted to temporarily argue the point. He felt like Dumbledore was leading them all down a steep slope while they were all blindfolded. Just for once he'd like to know what was going on.

Snape sighed, rubbed his eye and rested his head back again.

Lily put her glass down and stroked his hair away from his cheek. He put his hand up against her hand and sighed.

"Lily…I worry for the students."

Lily nodded sympathetically.

"I can understand why. They're away from home, some of them are so young…the poor muggleborns must be terrified with all of these older kids talking…"

"Charity would know exactly what to do…" Snape sat up. "She had a 'drop in' every Monday lunch hour for students who were worried to go and have a talk with her. Anything they wanted to speak about."

Lily inclined her head, the way she did when she was formulating a plan.

"Do not go looking for her." Snape said both firmly and softly. "…I cannot lose you."

Lily gave a half smile.

"No, I won't. I've got things to do here…Now, why don't you come to bed?"

Snape half smiled.

"I'd love to. But I doubt I'd sleep…"

"I can help you…"

"I can brew my own potions, darling-"

Lily gave him a mischievous smile and nodded to the bed.

"Oh…" Snape gave a brief, grateful smile. "I see!"

She led him backwards to the bed and sat down on the crispness of freshly laundered sheets. Pointing her wand at the four poster bed's curtains, they dropped.

The passion between them as they undid each others buttons, clasps and pulled down zips, releasing each others moral coverings they were bare before each other quite quickly.

It caught him by surprise how desperately he wanted her tonight.

He wanted her always but his own carnal hunger growled within him like a dormant dragon tonight.

He kissed and sucked impatiently at every inch of her flesh. Lapping at the softness between her legs as she groaned and tried to muffle her moans with her finger tips.

She knew exactly how to make him misbehave.

Soon enough he was within her, and it was a blissful union as she moaned desperately as he pressed his hardness within the softest part of her intimacy.

She welcomed it as much as he did as she ground her hips against him, tightening herself inside around him. Gripping his manhood with tenacity that made him bury his head in her shoulder.

Her fingers traced nameless shapes on his back, her nails grazing his flushed skin. Gliding in the sweat they shared now.

Her eyes rolled back into her head as wave after wave of pleasure grew to a peak. As she reached her climax she gave the softest of gasps and rode the tides of sexual ecstasy as she brought him to his own climax.

Holding her hips desperately she milked every last drop out of him

Finally collapsing against her chest she wrapped her arms around him as he gently slid out of her, covering them both as he did.

As she came to out of a sweet coma of delight she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him to her naked bosom.

"…sleepy?" she asked.

"…Hmmm…" He purred softly.

"Good…" she smiled.

Snape did not think of the panic that gripped the school's heart in an icy hand. But downstairs in the great hall, four students met in silence.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Snape took his first class that morning at 9am.

Lily had gone to Hogsmede right after breakfast and seemed to be preoccupied. Snape thought of the night before and wondered if he had done something wrong. After all, he was very new to this kind of thing and wasn't sure if speaking about it the next morning was appropriate or not.

Shrugging it off he looked over a simmering cauldron that looked half decent on the front row and then at the student. It was a 5th year who was clutching at the book as if it was instructions on how to breathe.

Getting up from his desk he walked over and gave his usual 'what are you doing?' look.

"Problem, Miss. Bell?"

"No sir."

"Have you spilled Essence of insanity on your book?"

"No sir, it's…"

Snape grabbed the book off her roughly and looked at what she was looking at. It appeared to be a note.

Snape unfolded it carefully and read it.

"Miss. Bell, come to my desk. Now."

He turned and felt a rumble of chuckles from the class.

"…Quiet."

Sitting behind his desk. Katie Bell stood before it.

Her bottom lip was trembling and her eyes looked like they were swimming in tears.

'_I wish Lily was here…'_

"Miss. Bell. Have you discussed this note with Professor McGonagall?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head mournfully.

"…Why is it that your parents want you to return home after being at school for only one day?"

"Our neighbour. Mr. Sweeney has gone missing…My father thinks it is something to do with you-know-who."

"Have the ministry been informed?" Snape asked quietly.

"They said he'd just gone on holiday." A tear rolled down her cheek, she quickly wiped it away with her sleeve. "Mr. Sweeney never went on holiday, he hated travelling."

Snape nodded.

"I see. Well, on with your work. When your lesson is over, I want you to go to your head of house and show her this note."

Katie looked temporarily stunned and took the note with shaking hands before returning to her seat gratefully.

Snape scratched his head slightly and carried on reading through this mornings 'Prophet'.

There was no mention of any disturbances, disappearances. That dreadful Skeeter woman was chattering on about Celestina Warbeck using extension charms on her hair and Magnus Magpie was discussing the best way to get dragons to make more effective fertilizer.

Snape looked at his time table; next up was a free period, then the fourth years for fourth and fifth period. Snape silently thanked his lucky stars that it was Friday today.

He collected in the potions at the end of the lesson and made his mind up to visit Dumbledore. He knew that as it was Friday, Dumbledore would be in the Owlery.

However, when he got there, he found that Dumbledore was not there.

Shrugging off the strange looks he was getting at going to the Owlery for no apparent reason and deducting points from some Hufflepuff's who were charming their own burps to sing he made his way agitatedly to the headmasters office.

Usually, not being able to find Dumbledore would not have bothered Snape but the fact he needed to discuss something urgently, coupled with the fact this presence of fear that was breeding with every hiss and whisper from the students, faculty and paintings made him feel almost irrational.

"SNAPEY, SNAPEY, STINKY SNAPEY!"

Snape looked up quickly and saw Peeves smiling as he floated in midair.

"Peeves, have you seen Professor Dumbledore?" he asked quickly.

"Might've. Might not've." he teased.

"Tell me or I will hex you." Snape growled.

Peeves rolled over in the air and blew a casual raspberry.

"You and Lily-Liver-Evans are dating aren't ya!"

"Be quiet!" hissed Snape, looking around for anyone who may have heard.

"Is it a secret!?" Peeves grinned, delighted at the thought.

"No." Snape said quickly.

"I know how to keep secrets!"

And out of nowhere Peeves produced an old fashioned loudhailer and took a deep breath.

"PEEVES."

Peeves looked around and saw someone he was afraid of. His already pale face blanched.

"Yes Mr. Dumbledore Sir! I will stop right now! I will be going now sir!" he gave a grand salute and popped into invisibility.

Snape turned around and saw Dumbledore stood there in his robes looking every inch as placid as usual. He reminded Snape of the living embodiment of a gentle brook. Even his wizened face was as calm as an alabaster statue.

"I have been looking for you." began Snape gravely, relieved that Peeves had

"As have I you." Dumbledore nodded.

Snape nodded and waited for the headmaster to speak.

"Your significant other has come to me with a proposition."

"Oh?"

"Follow me."

Snape hated it when he did this. It was almost as if Dumbledore had the gift of being able to dangle something extremely tempting in front of someone and snatch it back at the last minute to ensure compliance.

Then again, he could not complain, it was how he got Lily back.

Following the elderly headmaster to his office. He felt a shudder of disapproval as Dumbledore pleasantly chirped: "Rhubarb and Custard." before the Phoenix statue slowly rotated and provided a stone staircase.

"Where is Lily?" Snape asked softly.

"She's returned to her duties. As should you after we have spoken…" Dumbledore gently chided.

"I have a free period, Headmaster."

Dumbledore nodded and walked into his room before retiring behind his desk. Fawkes was having a bad day, he looked rather dishevelled. Snape glanced briefly at the ashes growing beneath the bird and then looked back to Dumbledore.

"Your significant other has had the most wonderful idea."

"I worry when she has those." Snape sighed.

Dumbledore chuckled.

"Indeed. Lily has always been most bright and energetic."

Snape dismissed thoughts of last night that had been conjured by the words, bringing up Occulmency as fast as he could to save his blushes from Dumbledore.

"Lily has offered to stand in place of Chastity Burbage until she is found."

"…To teach?"

"Yes. She is going to teach muggle studies and take over from Miss. Burbage in her capacity here at the school."

Snape nodded and thought quickly. His thoughts dashed at the pace of the Quidditch world cup.

"What about her job at the potioneers?" he asked.

"Arrangements have been made between Mr. Tukes and the Order to let her go quietly. Mr. Tukes is sympathetic to the Order."

"And she will teach muggle studies?" Snape reiterated.

"I think she is a prime candidate. A muggle born witch who was brought up in the muggle world and taught in the wizarding world. An Auror to boot. I think that is a perfect Curriculum Vitae."

Snape nodded slowly.

"I see no problem with this. At least when she is at this school I can look after her better."

Dumbledore chuckled.

"I think you would fight to certain death for one another."

"I would." Snape nodded. "When does she start?"

"Monday. She has the weekend to plan her first lesson; I believe you will help her, Severus."

"Yes, of course…" Snape nodded and looked at the headmaster trying to employ Occulmency, not now for his memories of last night, but for his concerns over what the students may say.

Dumbledore walked around to face Snape and put his hand on his arm.

"You will not be the first scandal to hit this school." the old headmaster smiled. "You will be flavour of the week for awhile but soon enough they will grow used to their potions master and muggle studies teacher 'courting'."

Snape half smiled at the archaic word.

"I suppose so."

"Off you go. Your next lesson will be starting shortly."

Snape turned to leave and then had a second thought.

"…Oh, headmaster?" he began, turning.

"Yes?"

"Katie Bell's parents want her to go home. Her neighbour Mr. Sweeney has gone missing, they suspect he-who-must-not-be-named."

"Sweeney?" Dumbledore replied.

"Yes, headmaster."

Dumbledore looked worried but quickly masked it as Fawkes suddenly burst into flame.

"Oh! Good show old man!" he cheered quietly and began tending to the ashes that were now shuffling with a new chick.

Snape looked at him briefly before leaving, wondering what had spooked him.

The fourth and fifth period lessons with the 4th years drudged by in a slow crawl of shared looks of uneasiness, whispers and meaningful glances between Weasley, Miss. Granger and Longbottom. Pansy Parkinson was whining loudly about how people should keep their mouths shut before glaring nastily at the trio behind her.

He actually had to warn her she was near losing points from her house before she stopped.

Pansy was still scowling.

Snape knew she had a soft spot for Malfoy but as far as he was concerned Miss. Parkinson was well shot of him though her acting like a hysterical mourning widow was getting tiresome.

"Sir?"

Snape looked up sharply as he saw Lavender Brown raise her hand. The other students were looking at her peculiarly.

"Miss. Brown?"

"Is it true Professor Burbage is dead?"

Snape's dark eyebrows knitted.

"Who has been instigating this baseless conjecture?"

Lavender did not say but her eyes flashed to Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode.

Snape carefully folded his sleeves and crossed his arms.

"Listen to me. All of you. I will not repeat myself again." he began evenly as all work on potions ceased.

"Professor Burbage is currently in St. Mungo's undergoing treatment for Dragonpox. Nothing more sinister than that."

"But Sir, people are saying he-who-must-n-"

"Quiet!"

It was rare for Snape to raise his voice above a carefully chosen decibel somewhere between whispering and a normal speaking voice but the desperate he felt to silence that man's metaphorical nom de plumes was enough to put an edge in his voice.

Snape levelled a steely gaze at the class. The silence was punctuated by occasional lonely bubbles and the hiss of steam.

"Your parents may have told you things that you question." he began slowly choosing his words as carefully as he could. "But at this time, there is nothing for you to be concerned with."

These were words of comfort, as best as he could deliver them whilst still maintaining his professional stance as a teacher.

"If I hear anybody spreading unfounded and alarming rumours, you will be scrubbing flobberworm mucus off of the floor until you graduate. Do I make myself clear?"

There was a quiet murmur of agreement.

"Continue with your work."

"But sir…?"

Snape gave Mr. Finnegan a sharp look.

"…Who's gonna be teachin' muggle studies then? I mean, where would y'find a replacement teacher that fast?"

Snape felt a redness grow in his cheeks that he would not permit to permeate the natural pallor of his skin.

"A temporary tutor has been assigned to the muggle studies class. She will take lessons as of Monday."

He saw Miss. Granger whisper something to Longbottom who nodded and looked to Weasley who sniggered something else.

"Weasley, 10 points from Gryffindor, speaking out of turn."

Weasley scowled and carried on tending his potion.

The rest of the lesson passed without incident and he set homework for the class to research Bezoars and their uses in curing poisoning.

Watching the students file out he saw Diggory waiting by the door to speak with Longbottom, Miss. Granger and Weasley.

Snape was gifted at many things but lip reading was not one of them and the bustling of the 7th year class soon obscured them from view. By the time they had cleared, they had gone.

They were up to something.

He almost couldn't wait to see Lily that evening.

After his lesson had finished, he dismissed the class, walked to the staff room, grabbed the book he had been reading on his break and headed to his quarters in the dungeons, hoping she would be there.

Walking in, he saw that there appeared to be daylight sifting through the windows.

Throwing the book down, he strolled over to the window and looked outside…a perfect view of the grounds.

Impressive…

Seeing as this room was under the lake.

Lily had always been gifted with her charms. No doubt something she picked up in the ministry.

Smiling he turned back to the room that had once been so cold and so dank and was now alive with the warmth that appeared to radiate from her hair and lighten the room like a roaring fire in the grate.

There came a sudden, urgent knocking at the door.

"Who is it?"

"Lupin!" came the urgent, hurried reply.

"I do not need this dragon dung today Lupin…" he half snarled, pulling the door open.

Lupin was stood before him, looking just as rough as yesterday.

"What is it?" Snape asked impatiently.

Lupin staggered forwards and collapsed into his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"It's a fever." Poppy pronounced as she looked through her pince-nez at Lupin who was now lying in Snape's bed with a distasteful amount of sweat on his brow.

"What kind of fever, Poppy?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"It looks like some sort of infection."

Snape stood statically near to the bed posts, a stiff member of the tableau of staff.

Poppy was nursing his brow with a flannel.

"…his wounds are inflamed."

"His wounds?" asked McGonagall. "What wounds?"

Poppy lifted the saddened with sweat and revealed some rather red, old looking scars.

"His initial attack bites. The ones that made him the way he is."

Snape looked away in undisguised disgust before turning to Professor Dumbledore.

"Albus." he began informally. "Could he have been infected again?"

"You know as well as I do that secondary infection after an initial werewolf bite is practically impossible. But I must admit, I have never seen this before."

"Should I call St. Mungo's?" Poppy asked.

"I don't see what more then could do than you are doing Poppy."

"His temperature is very high…" she sighed. "He'll need nursing."

As she said this she looked to Snape.

Snape looked back at her and then to the others who were looking at him half expectantly.

"Not a chance! I am not playing nursemaid to him!" he protested.

"Severus, your history in potions, your knowledge of Defence against the dark arts, you are a perfect candidate." Dumbledore said softly.

"He tried to kill Lily!"

"Under the imperius curse." Dumbledore countered.

"He slept with Lily!"

McGonagall moved awkwardly as Poppy looked back to Lupin.

"Severus, you can be the bigger man here and not bring that up. Remus is sick, and I am aware you didn't see eye to eye, and perhaps still do not, but he is quite ill and you are probably the best man in the country to help him now."

"Please don't flatter me, Albus. It's tacky."

"Flattery, Severus? Not at all. I would like for Lupin to remain under your observation. Poppy, if you could look after him by day while Severus tends to his students and perhaps you and Lily could take care of him by night, in shifts?"

Snape looked at the sickened man in the bed. A shiver of revulsion went through him.

"And if he transforms?"

Albus nodded and pointed his wand at the bed.

"Incarcerus."

At once four chains locked his hands and feet to the posts of the bed. Lupin gave a soft murmur of weak complaint before fading back into his unconsciousness.

"Until we know what it is, we cannot take chances. There is no known magic that will make a werewolf transform out of the light of the full moon, but this is unknown magic."

Snape sighed furiously.

"Baby sitting a werewolf. I don't want Lily near him!"

"With all due respect, Lily has lived with Professor Lupin. She may be so used to his transformations she may teach you something…"

Anger bubbled inside Snape. A sudden thought of Lily doing what Poppy did now came into his head.

She sat on his bed in that outfit she wore last night, candlelight, Lupin speaking to her softly…

Bile rose in his throat.

Gritting his teeth and swallowing the anger he looked stubbornly at Dumbledore.

"Then I suppose she will be a perfect nurse for him then."

Without looking back, he swept from the room.

Spreading, swarming wrath roared through him like a wildfire as this unwanted, infected, dangerous creature lay in their bed. A perfect cuckoo in their nest.

Was it too much to ask that Lupin kindly get out of their life?

He would rather take Potter over Lupin in that bed right now, at least he knew that Lily disapproved of Potter but Lupin-they had…

Another unwelcome image of the pair of them writhing passionately on his bed twisted into his mind.

Steadying himself on a wall, he felt a cold chill spread through his body, making its way out of him in a cold, damp sweat.

"Professor, are you alright?"

He opened his eyes and looked to find Longbottom staring at him. His round face curious.

Snape stood upright immediately. "Shouldn't you be in Herbology club, Longbottom?"

"No sir, Professor Sprout called it off. You look sick, Sir."

"I am sick Longbottom, sick of nosy Gryffindors unable to mind their own business, now go to your common room."

Longbottom looked pressed to appeal this decision but instead gripped the strap of his school bag and headed towards the main hall.

Snape looked around.

In his temper, he had found his way to the entrance hall and was stood near some portraits.

"He's right y'know, y'look peaky." commented a witch who was casually bobbing up and down on a broom as a storm raged over the sea below her.

Snape gave her a look of disdain and walked quickly to somewhere he hoped he would not be disturbed.

The astronomy tower.

Students would not be taking their classes until at least 7pm and by now they should either be in their common rooms or still eating.

Lily could be eating right now. In the dining hall. Oblivious.

Somehow her presence would for once not be a comfort to him in this rage of jealousy. It was his jealousy and he felt he had the right to let it roam freely like a green eyed beast in a forest.

The man she had fornicated with lay in their bed, and in his weakened state he may appeal to Lily's generous and kind nature. She could nurse him and he could fall for her anew…and then what was to stop her from running back into his arms.

Lily never spoke about what happened that caused them to split up. They remained on reasonable, professional terms, but she never did explain why they broke up.

This was an unknown factor. Perhaps it could be forgiven in the midst of sickness. Of desperate feverish rambling. What could Snape do for Lupin despite give him a nauseating 'there-there' pat on the hand and occasionally administer potions.

He was a teacher, and not a bloody nurse!

Reaching the top steps of the astronomy tower he looked to the circular open room in which students would study the night's sky.

It was a clear night with little cloud in the sky. The gamekeepers hut in the distance belched smoke and in the forest flocks of bats danced over the trees and night birds gave their mournful calls.

Snape felt alone. And it felt good.

Alone with the thoughts that were like familiar friends now rather than torture devices as they had been so many years ago when he and Lily had fallen apart. After a while, their sly persecution. Their cruel pangs of guilt were a welcome form of self-flagellation and his own voice hissing pitiless accusations of fault were pleasant to shamed ears.

It was like listening scratching at an old scar as the familiar pain flooded his soul.

"…Severus."

Snape looked up, half bothered by this cleansing ritual he was indulging in to see McGonagall stood there.

"Minerva." he replied. "Come to view Venus? Or is it Mars you are after?"

"I was hoping to speak to you about Professor Lupin." she began.

"You're out of luck, Minerva. I don't wish to discuss it. It is bad enough that I have to endure his 24 hour presence now for the foreseeable future. I don't want him peppering the free time I actually DO have left." he sighed.

"I know you dislike him."

"Is it that obvious?" he scoffed.

"Severus, Please…"

Snape looked at her to continue.

"He's quite sick as you know, and Professor Dumbledore wants to know how he got like this. Poppy isn't sure what it could be. She's at a loss. You have had dealings with the dark arts-"

"I don't wish to discuss it." he replied curtly.

"You know what the death eaters are capable of."

"And I wish to forget about it!"

"They may not have marked you Severus, but they taught you!"

"And I am ashamed of it!" Snape roared.

"…Then use what you know to cure him. Today it was Lupin…Tomorrow, one of the students or one of the other faculty…"

"…And what am I meant to be looking for?! Do you think the death eaters sign their curses with helpful 'scrub off' instructions?! Like a Zonko product?!"

McGonagall looked at the sky.

"…did you know I was married once, Severus?"

Snape looked towards the same patch of sky. It was the sun slowly descending into the horizon.

"…Yes. You brought him to a staff party once…" he said looking down.

"Elphinstone died of a Venemous Tentacula bite." she said quite matter of factly. "…We don't know the circumstances of his death, and even now I wonder if it was something to do with the death eaters that had gone underground. I still blame myself for not being able to prevent his death…"

Snape looked at her. Her eyes were watery but not sad, more defiant.

"I think you understand what I am saying…" she said sternly.

"Yes." Snape nodded.

He had to try and find what was ailing Lupin, in case it affected Lily one day. After all, he was now public enemy number one with the death eaters and it if Bellatrix knew…it was only a matter of time before she struck out and attacked Lily.

Not even Lily could fight an infection like the one that was paralysing Lupin.

"I'll speak to you later Severus." she nodded, and left to descend the stairs.

Snape took a deep, hard breath and exhaled it sharply.

The following few days, weeks…months…

Would be hell.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Severus Snape!"

Snape's eyes blinked hard as he heard the love of his life use his full name in an aggressive, exasperated tone.

"…Darling, let me explain."

"WHY IS REMUS LUPIN IN OUR BED?!"

"Lily, listen to me."

"Make it good!"

Snape planned to explain quickly and precisely (after an afternoon spent rehearsing it to his books as he stared at their busy pages) exactly what her Lupin was doing in their love nest.

"…I know it looks bad…"

"LOOKS bad? My ex boyfriend is chained, half naked, to our bed!"

Snape felt a flush of blood flood through his cheeks.

"Please, DO NOT say it like that." He implored.

"Then explain!" she demanded, her hand on her hip, her green woollen beret buried in its fist.

Snape took a deep breath.

"I have been watching him since 6pm this evening. He has a dark curse, infection…something that is slowly afflicting his old curse wounds."

"…I don't want him in our bed, Sev." she reiterated.

Severus found her resolute refusal of him both encouraging, yet shocking.

"I know…he tried to kill you…" Snape began.

"That's not why I'm pissed off Sev. That man is my ex-boyfriend. I do not want him to taint our bed sheets!" Lily nearly shrieked.

"I will have them personally scoured clean." Snape promised.

Lily's skin was flushed as she drew Snape aside. Fire started at her forehead, flushed to her cheek, spread to her hair.

Snape fell for her afresh.

"…I don't want to sound like a complete bitch, Sev. But I can't deal with him in our bed. I can't."

"It's a serious illness Lily. Believe me, I am not happy either. Particularly when one considers what we did last night in those very sheets. But for now we will have to monitor him. Dumbledore believes that it is death eater based."

"…have you any leads?" she asked.

"It isn't chemical. It's a curse." he responded. "I have been monitoring the progress of the 'infection.'.

He took Lily's hand and led her to the bed. He felt awkward at displaying her ex-boyfriends body to her so candidly but felt he ought to as he revealed the initial scars.

"…These are inflamed as if they were infected, but the area is devoid of any actual infection. More than anything, it seems to be simulating an infection. I have treated the wounds with dittany and it does nothing. It is almost an illusion, rather than actuality."

Lily looked to Snape. Her large green eyes were set in concentration.

"…Are you saying he was cursed?"

"I am saying it's a distinct possibility." he began. "I have seen curses such as these in action before and they have complicated but logical answers. Unfortunately, this one is displaying no clues."

"Are you saying it's a puzzle?" she asked incredulously.

Snape looked uncertainly from Lupin to Lily, then to the floor.

"I have seen such curses." he said simply.

"With them, right?" she asked.

Them, meaning his friends. Death eaters in training. Concocting curses in boys bathrooms at lunch and using them on insects. Had such childish games turned into such fatal pranks?

"Yes." he admitted.

Lily's nose wrinkled only a little in disgust, but she touched his hands that were clasped in front of him. "…What could they be capable of?"

Snape looked over Lupin. Sleeping now, but still in the throes of the curse.

"If it opens his wounds…it could be fatal."

Lily nodded firmly. Her Auror training not betraying her true emotions.

"…As soon as he wakes, he goes to his own chambers, we will look after him there."

"They were afraid to move him, Lily."

"I understand." she said curtly. "But this is no place for him. He gave up the right to a place in my bed a long time ago."

Snape shuddered inwardly at the thought of them together again and dismissed it.

Lily moved to her bag.

"Where were you? You weren't here when I got back." he replied.

"Tukes', contracts, uniform handover, getting our stories straight. Auror business." she sighed, folding her cardigan over the couch.

"I heard you will be teaching muggle studies."

Lily looked at him, a crooked half smile on her lips.

"You heard right." she smiled. "Professor."

"Professor Lily Evans, Muggle studies." Snape repeated softly. "Sounds quite catchy."

"Indeed, not quite as commanding as Professor Severus Snape-"

"-Nursemaid." he added sardonically.

Lily hugged him from behind; her perfect hands were clasped at his front. He slid a cold hand over the top of them.

"Lily…" he began.

"Yeah?"

"…"

He wanted to know why they had split up. He wanted to know what it was like to live with a werewolf who was ready to transform. He wanted to know what dangers lay ahead for them both if he turned. He needed to know what he was in danger of hearing from Lupin in the throes of a fever.

"…Did you have a good day?"

_Coward_.

"Yeah, it was okay. Boring. Until now. Does trouble follow us or do I bring trouble to you?" she asked, pulling away from him to arrange the cushions on the couch.

"Probably both." he said absently. "…Did Dumbledore mention anything to you about the DADA position?"

"No. Coming in here and finding Lupin on the bed was the first I knew anything had happened. But I did see him welcoming someone at the front door."

"Oh? Who?"

"No idea. Don't really recognize her."

"Hmmm." Snape replied. "Lily, can you please be a dear and go and fetch me some more dittany please?"

"Use mine." she replied, reaching in her handbag and throwing him a small bottle.

Snape concealed a small smile before dripping the clear water onto the rawer of the scars.

Again, the precious essence did nothing but drip lamely onto the angry skin. Not even a whimper from the man's lips.

This was hopeless. There was nothing he could do.

"Has Dumbledore contacted Mad Eye?" she asked.

"I don't know. Probably. He was considering having Aurors posted at the school." Snape sighed as he covered Lupin's weakened form again. "At least his temperature is stable. High, but stable."

"How are we going to do this? Who takes the first shift?" Lily asked.

"I will." Snape replied. "You need your sleep. I can sleep tomorrow afternoon."

Lily leaned over and kissed his forehead.

"I'll pop to the hospital wing, get some fresh linen."

He nodded and sat in the armchair next to the smouldering fire and watched her leave before looking at his silent ward.

Death eaters at the gates. Voldemort reborn. A sickened werewolf in his bed and teachers dropping like poisoned doxies.

What could be worse?

Snape was woken in his armchair at 6.30am the following morning. He had fallen asleep at some point between checking Lupin's temperature, pulse and reaction to dittany. Nothing had changed and he had sat down after pulling the blanket over Lily who was sleeping on the couch.

He grabbed his wand tight in his fist and sat up rapidly, his head throbbing from lack of sleep.

"Mmh?!"

The door was making that noise doors make when people wanted to get in

'Knocking' his sleepy brain interpreted.

Getting up he staggered to the door and opened it, his wand tight in his hand.

"Wotcher!"

In front of him was a pink haired witch with a heart shaped face. She was chewing enthusiastically on some Drooble's best blowing gum and was clutching a copy of the daily prophet.

"…Who are-?" Snape cleared his throat and rubbed his stubbly chin. "What I mean to say, Miss. Tonks, is why you are here?"

"I'm Remus' new protector."

"You're barely out of Auror training."

"I'm good at my job! Just you watch me!"

"Who appointed you?"

"Mad Eye. He wants this cleared up ASAP. I don't blame him, can't have the teachers dropping like fl-" her lips paused as she saw Lily stir behind him on the couch.

Tonks looked to Snape and then back to Lily as a confused, albeit cocky smirk.

"Are you and-"

"Come in. You're making the place look untidy." he snapped and pulled her into the chambers.

"Never been in here before…Morning, Lily." Tonks smiled and winked at her before taking a seat beside Lupin.

"…Morning Dora." Yawned Lily and walked over to Snape. "You didn't wake me; did you take the entire shift?"

She wrapped her arms around him and cuddled him around his middle, pressing her sleepy face against his chest.

He felt uneasy about this level of contact in front of a perfect stranger, well at least in front of someone he barely recalls from his early teaching days.

He patted her head awkwardly before turning to look. Tonks was there smiling, her hair was turning from pink to red.

"You two going out?" she asked.

Lily nodded happily and looked up at Snape.

Snape didn't feel inclined to smile but instead stroked Lily's hair.

"I need a shower, I smell of dittany and the dregs of a dying fire." he sighed.

"You look great." she smiled.

"I doubt that." he half snorted and made his way to the bathroom that lay just beyond the end of the room.

His chambers were quite small but had the necessary facilities. He had managed to secure a set of rooms that had a bathroom attached to them. Many professors' chambers didn't have a bathroom, but he often surmised that it was as a compensation for living in the draughty, sometimes drippy dungeons.

Tapping his wand on the archaic shower unit it clunked several times as water filled the pipes and a spray of water at the perfect temperature sprayed into the enamel bath tub. A green shower curtain hung in a better state of cleanliness-Lily's doing, no doubt and fresh soap from Tukes' was sat in its paper wrapper in the soap tray.

Shedding his sleep-stale clothing, he climbed into the shower and washed perfunctorily.

Today was Saturday. Lily had lessons to plan; he had to discuss who would take over the DADA classes and what the students would think if another teacher disappeared. He wanted to catch up on this weeks marking and perhaps owl St. Mungo's.

Something else irked him.

Lily was now at Hogwarts, and as a result…even if students didn't yet know, soon enough they would see their temporary Muggle studies teacher disappearing to the dungeons…even if they didn't see Lily's public displays of affection.

Lily was wonderful. She was the lantern in a dark, dark tunnel.

In private he wanted to hold her, stroke her, kiss her, have his cold skin next to her warmth and embrace her in every way.

In public he was a potions master with a reputation to uphold. Having the beautiful, stunning Lily hold him and embrace him would leave him open to ridicule, scorn and to be the butt of many a joke.

He didn't want to push Lily away, but he needed her to realize that there was some affection that needed to be behind closed doors.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Lupin's condition remained constant for the entire weekend.

Every time that he checked the wounds, the fever, the weakness, the unconsciousness. All aspects were the same. Constant.

It was an unbreakable bubble in which Lupin was an unwilling captive.

It was the imperius curse, for his body.

Snape began to feel pity for the werewolf lying on the bed. His scars stood out in sharp contrast to the pale skin that was bathed in sweat.

No matter what potions Snape administered; the blood replenishment potions for his slowly oozing wounds or the potion for dreamless sleep for his nightmares that made him cry weakly like a child. Nothing would break it.

Lily flitted in and out as she asked questions on lesson plans, occasionally checking up on her ex-boyfriend, each time she did she kissed Snape's forehead, his hand, his shoulder. It was almost like she was marking her territory.

Tonks however did not seem to find it amusing anymore.

Lily whispered to him several times that Tonks was not her usual self. That she was brooding and quiet and that usually she had to be asked to be quiet and concentrate. But instead she was incredibly pensive.

Lily did her best of course to keep Tonk's spirits up. Lily had that kind of way about her. A nurturing, near maternal instinct. She explained to Snape during one of Tonks' comfort breaks that new Aurors don't have the resistant shield to be outside of a situation that the older Aurors do and perhaps this was her way of dealing with it.

After providing Butterbeer, the two ladies sat together talking furtively and Snape decided to make himself scarce.

He recognised the signs of girls needing to talk. He often saw girls in his classes like this. Huddled together, whispering behind cupped hands, sharing looks of shock or scandal. The boys would speak freely. Shouting at each other, accusing each other, often fighting…girls were deeply private.

At least they wouldn't start hexing each other in the corridor and cause a great amount of unnecessary paperwork.

He found himself walking towards the seventh floor. Technically, this was a patrol though unofficially it was a meander around the more deserted parts of the castle.

Despite being grateful for all of the time he spent with Lily, on occasion it was good to be alone. When he was alone his thoughts seemed clearer and more structured as when he was with Lily she often wanted to know what he was thinking-again, something he found girls did frequently.

Women were a peculiar species.

As he rounded towards the Divination staircase he saw Longbottom stood in front of a bare patch of wall.

Pausing, Snape watched as he leaned idly against it, looking at a copy of 'Hogwarts: A History'.

"What are you doing, Longbottom?"

Longbottom put the book behind his back.

Snape sighed.

"Hand it over, Longbottom."

With great reluctance, Longbottom handed over his book.

It was indeed a copy of "Hogwarts: A History".

"Is there a reason you are sat here reading this?"

"…expanding my knowledge, Professor?"

Snape inclined his head.

"You should move to your common room. You're blocking the corridor."

Longbottom sighed and held out his hand for the book.

Snape returned it to him.

"Sir…?"

Snape looked to him.

"Do you know anything about 'The Room of Requirement?'?"

"It's a myth. Nothing more." responded Snape.

"Like The Chamber of Secrets?" Longbottom replied sardonically.

Snape felt ire rise within him. Regardless of a student's personal celebrity or personal life, they should always keep a civil tongue when addressing their Hogwarts faculty.

"As thrilling as your diary must be, Longbottom. And as littered with dangerous exploits such as slaying the mythical beast of Slytherin and sitting outside stretches of bare wall studying a book you should have committed to memory by now, I must inform you that as much as you want the room of requirement to exist. It does not. Move along."

Longbottom looked mutinously at Snape before wandering off.

Snape shook his head and walked towards the grand staircase.

Why did Longbottom want to know about the fabled Room of Requirement?

Of course he'd heard of it from students, and even amongst the staff it had been discussed. Dumbledore himself had expressed the opinion the school possibly had many hidden rooms that only showed themselves at certain times but Snape doubted it. Hogwarts, despite being magical, was not infinite in its capacity.

But what did Longbottom require? Was he expecting to walk in and find the sole way to kill Voldemort? A special wand? Sword? Potion?

He was sadly delusional if he thought it would be as simple as drinking a potion, stabbing him with a sword or casting a spell with a special wand.

"I'm sure you will be very comfortable here…" he overheard a genial voice say.

Snape stepped back and listened intently.

"I'm sure I will Professor Dumbledore." came a saccharine female voice. "Though I must say, are you sure that having a-" There was a hesitant pause. "…werewolf in the school when he is afflicted with some unknown illness is safe for the students? Have you informed Pius?"

"Professor Lupin is being well taken care of and will be back with us shortly we hope. After all, I would not like to keep you from your business for long."

"Indeed not. We have some new legislation we are currently trying to get approved and it will make the magical world a much 'cleaner' place."

She then gave a short burst of girlish laughter.

The sound of it made Snape smart and he decided he wanted to know who this new 'replacement' was.

Walking purposefully he came face to face with Dumbledore and what appeared to be a plump looking pimple.

"Ah! Severus, this is Dolores Umbridge. Senior Undersecretary to Pius Thicknesse." Dumbledore began amiably.

Dolores smiled and kept her stubby fingered hand close on her pink dragon skin handbag.

"Delighted."

Snape did not reply but instead looked straight to the headmaster.

"Headmaster. I would like a word with you later if that is alright."

"Certainly. How is Professor Lupin?" he asked.

Snape did not like Lupin, but he didn't specifically want to discuss the man's condition in front of this woman.

"Stable."

"Good, good. Dolores, if you would like, I will take you to your quarters." Dumbledore nodded.

"Thank you." she beamed as they walked towards the grand staircase.

Snape had heard about Dolores Umbridge. She was bad news. He was sure he had read about her trying to draught certain laws that restricted the rights of certain half breeds.

Certainly not someone he wanted to work with…and that awful colour.

Quickening his pace he went back towards the dungeons to find Lily ticking off one of the students.

"I think you'd better apologise!" Lily began indignantly to the black haired Slytherin girl.

"Why should I?" continued the student who he now saw to be Pansy Parkinson.

"Because that term is not appropriate here at Hogwarts. And I am sure if Professor Dumbledore heard you using it he would be writing to your parents!"

Snape had an idea what the word was, and also that her parents used it freely enough.

"Problem, Miss. Evans, Miss Parkinson?" Snape began darkly.

Pansy Parkinson looked to Snape and gave a scoff, turning back to Lily with a scathing look on her face.

"You got your little boyfriend to back you up now, haven't you? You filthy Mudblood."

Lily's cheeks reddened to an almost impossible shade as she heard a word that was like a scar to them both.

"What did you call me?" Lily asked quietly.

"You heard. Mudblood. Muggle born filth!"

Snape stepped forwards, a slight hint of red in the cheeks and his eyes pooling like black ink.

"Miss. Parkinson. Follow me."

He gave Lily a quelling look before escorting Pansy to his office.

Sitting down behind his desk, he saw the 4th year Slytherin girl scowling at him with her arms folded.

"You are familiar with school rules?" he began, reaching for a slip of parchment and his quill.

"Yes." she bit deliberately.

"And you know the rule concerning anti-Muggleborn speech?" he asked, scribbling.

"Yes."

"And are you aware that you just called a teacher a 'Mudblood'." he asked, looking at her. The word burned like acid on his lips.

"Teacher?" she asked, her folded arms dropping to her sides.

"Miss. Evans, or I should say, Professor Evans is the new muggle studies teacher. A replacement for Professor Burbage until she recovers."

Pansy sneered.

"Figures. I'd have thought YOU'D have had better taste, Professor."

Snape inclined his head.

"Going with a muggle born…" she hissed.

Snape stood up, leaning on the desk and leaning close to her so she could hear him speak.

"My private life is nothing to do with you, or any other student. You will serve one months worth of weekend detentions with me starting tomorrow. You will be scrubbing the desks of the potions classrooms by hand and if I hear you speak like that again, I will be writing to your parents and possibly discussing your conduct with the headmaster."

Pansy grimaced.

"DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

"Yes sir." she said in a low voice, her eyes a little startled.

"Now get out of my sight."

Pansy left.

Snape felt his heart beating rapidly against his ribs as he sat back in his chair. Blood was pumping around his body rapidly and his head pulsed with the pain from it.

He never raised his voice to students. He felt that it indicated loss of control and thus left open the idea that it was weakness…but that girl had just crossed a very delicate line…

Just then the door knocked.

"Who is it?!" snapped Snape.

Lily walked in, her cheeks red and her eyes glassy. As if she was trying not to cry.

"Oh." Snape began and got up. "Sorry, I thought it was-"

"Who is she?" Lily asked softly.

"Pansy Parkinson. I think she was close to Draco Malfoy. You must pay her no mind, she doesn't matter."

Lily walked in and sat on his desk. Her cheeks were red, the skin around her eyes was blotchy but she did not sound ready to weep.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

"Sure. 4th year calls me a Mudblood. I can deal with that…"

Snape felt a pang of guilt from when he had said it to her as a 6th year.

"…I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." she half smiled.

Snape rubbed his cheek, trying to get some life back into himself.

"They've appointed Dolores Umbridge as temporary DADA teacher." he informed her.

"We'd better get Remus on his feet as soon as we can then. That woman is a bitch."

Snape raised his eyebrows.

"Language…"

"She is." Lily replied, looking at him. "She's got it in for anyone who isn't pure or half blood. Werewolves, centaurs, giants…anything that isn't on her 'criteria'."

Snape held her hand.

"She looks like a blamanche."

Lily gave a soft snicker and nodded.

"Yeah, she does."

Snape kissed her hand slowly and looked up at her.

"What say we just leave? Move somewhere quiet?" he asked, looking at her with a weak smile on his world-weary face.

"Where did you have in mind?" she asked, humouring him.

"…Greenland?"

Lily smiled weakly.

"Running away does nothing. We must be brave."

"Typical Gryffindor."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Pansy Parkinson served her first detention at 9am on Sunday morning meaning that Snape had no chance of a lie in after Saturday's lack of sleep. Not that he could sleep. Between Tonks taking an armchair, Lupin taking the bed, and Lily taking the couch he was left to make cushioning charms on the ground and hope they held overnight.

Any opportunity to move to another bed or another room was quashed by the thought of the students noticing.

With teachers going down like flies and new teachers anything new or unusual would get tongues wagging.

He had seen Dumbledore on Saturday night for a brief meeting.

Snape expressed his anxieties on everything from unable to work out what was wrong with the still unconscious Lupin to Dolores Umbridge (who had incidentally been appointed by the Ministry) to Pansy Parkinson and finally, Neville Longbottom's behaviour.

Dumbledore listened, his long fingers meeting at their points as he nodded until he stood up and concurred that Umbridge's appointment was not opportune and smelled distinctly of Ministry interference, that he was right to punish Pansy Parkinson but to expect a backlash, and that Lupin was stable, and that was all anyone could have hoped.

But as for Longbottom, he simply smiled and said nothing.

Snape was infuriated by his blasé attitude to a 14 year old boy with a mortal nemesis looking for mythical rooms in order to destroy said nemesis.

Sometimes, Dumbledore could be so nonchalant about these things!

After a particularly uncomfortable night, getting up and pulling blankets back onto Lily and Tonks and bathing Lupin's head he was beginning to feel distinctly mechanical and rather burdened by all of this additional work.

Tonks woke at 8.30, grabbed some toast and some bacon from the kitchens and brought it in for the to eat but Snape felt too sick to eat anything. He dressed and went to the dungeons where Pansy was standing, waiting for her detention with a scowl on her face.

The Detention lasted for 3 hours without breaks until the wood on the desks had turned from a scrubbed black to a scrubbed dark brown and then he had her scour the class cauldrons.

She never said a word but stared at him angrily every so often.

Snape caught up with his marking as she did this and made comments occasionally on how she should mind her tongue lest it got her into trouble.

When she had finished he sent her away, telling her that her next detention would be re-labelling the potion supplies cupboard. As she left picking desk scum out of her nails, a woman was stood in her way.

It was not Lily.

"Hem hem…"

Snape looked up from inspecting the recently cleaned cauldrons to stare at the pimple from yesterday.

"Miss. Umbridge." Snape said pointedly.

"Professor." She corrected with a fixed smile.

Snape looked at her as if to ask her to go on.

"I was wondering how Remus Lupin was." she began sweetly.

Snape felt as though a snake had donned a set of cat ears and was purring.

"…Professor-" Snape began meaningfully "-Lupin, is stable."

Umbridge continued to smile brightly.

"Would you consider him to be a danger?" she asked cheerfully.

Snape put the lid on the cauldron he had been inspecting and made to walk past her, out of the classroom.

"I'm not a doctor, and I'm not an Auror. But I would say that at this time, he is no danger at all."

Umbridge's smile did not change, but her eyes appeared to show a slither of disappointment.

"Is it correct that Remus Lupin is a werewolf?" she asked.

"It is not something we readily discuss." Snape said evenly.

She gave a girlish laugh.

"Of course not. Thank you for your…information, Professor Snape."

And with that she walked off towards the staircase to the entrance hall.

Snape felt as if his classrooms had been personally invaded by something sickly and disgusting. Like a bad perfume.

His thoughts turned to Lily. Her perfume was always beautiful. Delicate and not overpowering, enough to catch his attention, but never overwhelm him.

After being in the presence of that pink hag he wanted her company more than ever.

Walking back towards the chambers he and Lily (and now Tonks and Lupin) occupied he found the place deserted but for Lupin who was now wearing a different night shirt. He had been washed, changed, his wounds addressed and his hair had been combed neatly away from his sweaty face.

Looking at the potion bottles that lay empty, Snape deduced that he had also been medicated.

Snape sat besides him.

"…What did this to you?" he asked softly, his eyes narrowing as he inspected Lupin's prone body for fresh clues.

Snape went over what he knew already.

Lupin had acted curiously since he had returned but had not sickened until the day after. He had been released from St. Mungo's a few days prior to coming back to Hogwarts. He had worsened suddenly and then had fallen into this deep sleep.

Professor Flitwick was testing him for all of the usual hexes and charms in between classes but was as perplexed as he was.

Snape knew his Dark Arts, but this curse was different. It was not progressive.

It was almost as if it was holding him in place…

Snape inspected the bound hands for marks. Any sort of dark mark, hex scars, curse points…anything.

He was not imperiused. After all, what would this body be capable of?

It was almost as if he was put there as a warning…a distraction…a sleeping cell?

Snape had no idea.

Rubbing his eyes he went to drop more dittany on the wounds but as he did he noticed something he had not noticed before. There was a faint green aura emanating noxiously from Lupin's skin.

Not wanting to get to close to the slippery, sweaty, diseased man he had failed to notice this in his primary checks.

Snape now realized why the wounds had not been healing; this was a shield charm, albeit a dark one by its colour and over all appearance.

His instinct was to reach out and touch the skin to see if it attacked, but he knew that such an act would be a folly, after all, what if it jumped to him?

He took a nearby stale cup of elf wine and poured a little onto the skin. If it was a shield charm, the wine would resist his skin and not stain.

The skin resisted it.

Snape found himself smiling, despite the gravity of the situation and then realized that his next job was to release the charm.

He pointed his wand at Lupin and tried every counter charm he could remember. Starting with 'Finite' and ending with banishing charms but nothing would touch it. Snape felt dejection setting in and realized that he now had information, and solid proof that Lupin had been hexed.

Dumbledore listened patiently and went over the different spells Snape had used before suggesting that perhaps Professor Flitwick became involved again as counter-charms were a speciality of his.

Snape felt as if he were wading through a thick river of mud in circles for all the good this was doing.

Was Dumbledore being deliberately obstructive in Lupin's recovery?!

"-Why is that Ministry woman here?" Snape found himself almost snapping after a busy argument with his own protesting thoughts.

"Dolores?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes. She is incredibly nosy!" Snape muttered.

"Indeed. Between you and I, Severus. I believe she is trying to gain information for Pius Thicknesse on the student's reactions to the news that Voldemort may be back."

Snape had not considered that. He had considered that she may be on a spying mission…but it brought back the uncomfortable truth that Pius Thicknesse was suspected of being in Voldemort's service and that the ministry was now corrupt.

"…How do we react to her questioning?" he asked.

"With Brevity." Dumbledore replied. "I have a feeling over the next few weeks things shall become clearer."

"I hope so." Snape replied. "I'm getting tired of sharing my chambers with a moody Auror and a sick werewolf."

"I suspect you want time alone with Miss. Evans." Dumbledore smiled pleasantly.

Snape gave Dumbledore a look of awkward admittance and then looked to the floor.

"Love is not a crime, Severus. And it certainly would be nice to think that despite all of this that at least two people were making a new life together."

"…At the moment it is existence."

Albus stood up and took a look at the large ornate sword behind him. The sword of Godric Gryffindor.

"But hopefully, not for much longer."

Snape had no idea what he meant by that but it sounded stale and without foundation.

"You should go and rest, Severus. You look tired."

Snape wanted to answer something quite sardonic but felt it best to not antagonise Dumbledore who would fail to argue and instead would pull him into a long discussion.

"Good afternoon headmaster."

"I will ask Filius to drop by and check on Remus."

"Why not…my room appears to be a drop in clinic…" he found himself mutter as he descended the familiar, worn, stone steps.

He felt tiredness affect him more profoundly.

His chambers were a sick bay for teenage Aurors and cursed werewolves…Suddenly; his potions closet seemed like a haven.

He could use one of the older sets of robes for a blanket, and he was sure a few books could conjure a pillow.

Almost smiling with the idea he may be able to get some undisturbed rest he made his way to the store cupboard with almost indecent haste. Shutting the door and charming it locked he set about finding a cloak and conjuring a nice duck feather pillow.

He found a likely looking corner, pushed the large pillow against it and sat down on the cold floor. The cold was not a problem. He had spent many nights in the cold, cuddled up with a rag of a blanket on a badly damaged mattress at spinners end.

He didn't even remember closing his eyes.

He was walking down a long path.

Lily was at his side. Beautiful, with flowing red hair that seemed to float on a breeze that only affected her.

He was walking towards the shrieking shack. Behind him was daylight…ahead was pure night. It was an ominous site. A storm gathered around the crooked masonry of the old, dilapidated building.

Unsure, he turned to Lily and went to question her but instead she smiled her smile even more radiant than usual.

He found himself not in the tunnel that led to the shack but the front hall of it. He knew this was impossible as the door was charmed to open to nobody.

But Lily was leading him up the stairs.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He wanted to stop her but his feet kept moving.

At the top of the stairs she turned to him and whispered in a soft, haunting voice:

"Don't be afraid…It's for the best…"

As she opened the door to the room directly opposite Snape saw the same, slimy, naked creature he helped birth not a year ago…

His own screams woke him as the wooden door burst open. Lily stood there, her wand outstretched.

She crashed to her knees beside him, holding his face as he panicked.

"Sev, are you alright?!"

Snape tried to recount his surroundings.

A nightmare…

He looked to Lily whose eyes were wide with fright.

"You okay?!"

Snape swallowed nausea and nodded weakly.

"I…I just…I just had a nightmare…"

Lily stroked his hair and then withdrew her hand, looking at it.

"You're sweating….are you alright?"

Snape breathed uneasily.

"I'm just a bit…just a bit tired."

Lily did not seem convinced.

"…Come on, get up." she urged and offered her hand.

Snape took it gratefully and got up without placing much pressure on it but found himself gripping her, she gave him her other hand and tried to pull him up.

She had strength, and he needed it as he found himself quite weak.

"…You look unwell, Sev." she began solemnly. "I'm taking you to Poppy."

"Poppy has enough to be getting along with." Snape said, his voice fatigued.

"Fine." began Lily loftily. "I'll ask her to come here."

"No! I…I just need some sleep."

Lily didn't seem convinced but nodded.

"Okay…Come on."

She offered her arm for him to take to lead him the short journey back to the chambers.

The thought of that uncomfortable floor and the cramps in his stomach that were now wringing his intestines made him feel rather faint.

"Lily, just a moment…" he began uneasily, taking a breath that seemed to falter on its way in.

They greyness that had been building in his vision seemed to overcome him…


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

A not too unfamiliar thudding in the front of Snape's head told him he had passed out and similarly the clucking of the overprotective matron from nearby told him he was in the hospital wing of the castle.

"Not had anything to eaten for two days! Two days!" she tutted as she bustled around.

Snape furrowed his brow uncomfortably as he imagined that house elves were currently being forced to provide some food he didn't want.

Opening his eyes fully he found he had been out for at least three or four hours as it was now dark outside and the castle was relatively quiet.

Running his hand through his hair he tried to remember what had happened.

He had had a nightmare, he had woken up, Lily had tried to take him to his rooms and…yes, and then he passed out.

But why?

Just then Madam Pomfrey walked in to his curtained off bed.

"Nice to have you back!" she began. "Tongue!"

Snape lifted his tongue as Poppy put a thermometer under his tongue.

"Mrhh?"

"Shh." she began and started to take his pulse.

His eyes raked the room for Lily.

After a desperate search and a minute of waiting, Poppy removed the thermometer and nodded.

"Much better."

"Where's Lily?"

"I sent her to arrange for Remus' removal. You cannot go on this way Severus. You need to sleep in a proper bed. And eat proper meals. And rest adequately!"

Snape scoffed.

"I did not faint because I am hungry."

"Yes you did." She argued indignantly.

Snape had been hungrier than that…and never fainted from it. As a child he could suffer for days without adequate nourishment and still have the magic to turn bugs into buttons and back again.

Poppy looked to him.

"You need to look after yourself." she began sternly but with a sympathetic face. "You're pushing yourself hard enough with all of this business about he-who-must-not-be-named as well as nursing Lupin, being head of house and teaching. You're not Merlin!"

Snape nodded and sighed.

Perhaps he had been pushing himself hard recently. He was carrying a lot of weight on his shoulders and was receiving very little consideration for it.

Lying here, prone in this hospital bed made him realize that in fact it had weakened him, and that perhaps he had taken on too much. It made him feel as if he had been taken for granted a little by those who seemed to think he could take that kind of strain and still be able to function normally.

It hurt a little to think that those he considered close friends, and perhaps even loved ones had failed to consider he was human after all…

He felt a pang of neglect. Something he had not identified with for years.

"Has the headmaster been?" he asked softly.

"He popped in to check on you." she nodded, straightening his sheets.

Snape nodded and looked towards the door, desperate to see Lily.

"Did any students see?" he asked quickly.

"No." Poppy said almost instantly. It seems she had been prepped for this question.

"Good. When can I leave?"

"Miss. Evans sees it fit you spend tonight here, in a real bed." Poppy replied. "She will return with your things shortly. Until then, you need to eat this…"

Poppy reached from behind the curtains and produced a large plate of bangers and mash with a jug of onion gravy.

"I don't want to eat." he said resolutely.

"Do I need to give you an appetite uplift potion?" she began haughtily.

Snape shook his head. He knew what went into that potion and wasn't much for it.

Picking up the fork, he silently promised to eat it.

Content with this and that he would not simply vanish the food with his wand Poppy walked away.

As Snape tucked into the bangers and mash he started to feel his appetite coming out of hiding and appreciating the steaming hot meal and its attendant warmth.

The bed stopped feeling starchy and felt comfortable and by the time he had finished his 'pep-up' tonic. Poppy was happy to show Lily in to him.

Lily had brought his pyjamas and promised that Remus was now in his own room with Tonks as a guard.

She said that elves were changing the sheets and she had permitted them to clean the room.

Snape actually felt happy.

He had his room back, he felt better, his appetite had returned and Lupin and that moody girl had left.

"Lily…" he smiled.

She looked uncomfortable.

"You scared me." she said softly.

"I'm sorry. I must have forgotten to eat." he apologised. "So much going on, self-preservation took a back seat."

"That's not like you Sev, you're usually level headed." she sighed. "Is Dumbledore putting too much on you?"

"No…No." Snape lied. "I just had a weak turn. I'm sorry."

Lily seemed half placated by this but still the furrow of worry in her forehead remained.

"You start your lessons tomorrow." Smiled Snape. "I want to hear about it."

"You will. From the students probably. Saying I'm the worst teacher ever."

"You know they won't do that."

Lily gave a half smile.

"The curriculum is pretty easy. It's just relating to young wizards how the muggles live."

"Indeed." Snape agreed. The warm meal was resting in his stomach.

"Filius has identified the curse." Lily began with renewed vigour. "He thinks that it is a dark magic shield charm. He thinks that he can lift the curse but it will take time. That Umbridge woman I saw in the entrance hall the other night was there. She was very interested in what was going on, had a notepad out and everything."

"She's horrid." Snape scowled.

"She's a bitch." Lily responded. "She's always had it in for anyone who wasn't a pureblood or half blood."

"I know." Snape nodded. "But don't worry…She'll be hard pressed to find anyone who can best you in a duel."

"I wonder if I hexed her hat to eat her hair she'd notice."

Snape gave an indulgent smile and patted the bed.

"Come and join me."

"Poppy." Lily nodded towards the curtains.

"She won't mind."

"She'll frog march me out." Lily giggled. "Besides, you're sick. You need rest."

Snape sighed and rested back into the comfortable pillows.

"I'd appreciate to sleep next to you again."

Lily stroked his cheek.

"It's been torture without you to cuddle up to."

Lily smiled appreciatively.

"Look, I'm gonna head back. I'll come and get you at am and we can go to breakfast in the morning."

Snape nodded and reached for her hand.

"I love you."

Lily smiled again, but he noticed that its usual brightness was dim. Perhaps she was tired, perhaps she was worried. But she seemed vacant.

He decided not to press her on it.

Falling asleep that night, he found his thoughts were mercifully empty. He had an idea that Poppy had slipped him some 'draught for a dreamless sleep' for how fast he fell asleep and the lack of dreams he had.

He didn't even dream about the dark lord.

At am Lily came to collect him from the hospital wing.

Snape was given a stern talking to by Poppy who seemed to enjoy having a teacher to boss around and then he was released. He was very glad he did his marking on Sunday morning rather than have admitted to his students he had not graded their work.

Lily was pale and had rather overcompensated for it by wearing brighter colours. She wore an autumn orange cardigan and a dark yellow dress with olive green stockings and brown, buckled shoes.

She looked beautiful, if pasty.

He greeted her with renewed vigour and kissed her cheek happily before giving her a warm hug.

She gave a laugh of delight at this spontaneous greeting and held him back.

"This is nice!"

"I've been so preoccupied recently, hardly had time to appreciate you." he smiled warmly.

"Good nights sleep, good meal inside you, you're practically a teddy bear." Lily chuckled and held his hand tightly. "It's rare to see you like this."

Snape felt a pang of guilt. He had been neglecting her greatly. Now he was not burdened by being Lupin's nurse maid, hungry and tired, he saw that she had been suffering too.

Unsure of her new appointment as teacher, having to plan her lessons alone, sleeping alone.

"I'm sorry Lily." he said quietly and reached to stroke her ashen cheek. "I won't do neglect you again."

Lily smiled weakly.

"You've gone all soppy. Think of those kids you have to terrorize later."

Snape smiled and squeezed her hand again.

On the way to the great hall, they broke their hand holding to continue the façade of their relationship to the school and walked apart, speaking sensibly of school matters.

As she took a seat next to him, the Divination teacher wandered over and gave them a dewy smile.

"My dears." she began mistily. "I have foreseen your relationship for some time. How nice it is to see you in the physical world so happy."

Snape had little patience for Trelawney.

"Tell me, Sibyl. Do you happen to know where Charity is?"

"I'm sorry?" she asked.

"The muggle studies teacher? She's currently absent. Where is she?" he asked quietly as Lily leaned in to ask him not to take it further.

"I have seen many things but to speak of them now would bring great danger upon the school. Most unfortunate! Oh! The tragedies!" and with a dramatic flick of her hand upon her head she snuck away.

Snape shook his head.

"Fraud."

"Why do you hate her?" Lily asked as she reached for some toast.

"She couldn't predict a rainstorm if there were puddles on the floor!" snapped Snape and reached for the pumpkin juice.

Just then Professor Sprout wandered over.

"Severus, I have some gillyweed if you're interested….and congratulations Miss. Evans! Or dare I say, Professor!"

Lily smiled and took Pomona's earthy hand.

"Thank you Professor Sprout."

Snape looked beyond Sprout's soil laden clothing to the students now filling the great hall. Rubbing their eyes, scratching their hair and looking sleepily into the sky for owls carrying news from home.

As they started to survey the top table they not only noticed Lupin's absence, but Lily's appearance.

Snape felt his cheeks burn a little and busied himself with cutting up his sausages.

Lily smiled after Sprout who had advised her on dealing with 'wayward' students who may be distracted by a younger female teacher and turned to Snape.

"…What do I tell them if they ask difficult questions?" she asked surreptitiously.

"I think you should tell them to get on with their work." Snape responded and cut into his fried egg.

Lily nodded and looked towards the middle of the table where Dumbledore was not yet present.

Breakfast passed without problem or issue and as soon as the bell rang, Lily made to hurry to Muggle Studies.

"Lily." Snape began with a usual tone of formality he preserved for 'public' communication. "Have a good day; I will see you at lunch. Send any problems to me with a student."

"I will." she smiled weakly.

As she got up, she saw that Professor Umbridge, today in a pink angora cardigan and tartan pink skirt and was smiling meaningfully to her.

"She's staring at me, Sev…Sev, she's staring."

"Be polite…stare back."

Lily decided not to, and instead headed to her first lesson.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Snape did not see Lily that lunchtime and decided to go and see her. Of course, she was holding Charity's usual 'drop in' session for students but takers were pretty thin on the ground.

He found her sitting at her desk, surrounded by muggle instruments such as egg whisks, screwdrivers and light bulbs with a diagram of a bicycle on the chalk board.

"Having fun?" he asked quietly as she sat tracing her quill on a spare piece of parchment.

She looked up and smiled weakly at him before getting up.

"Come in."

He walked in.

Lily got up and walked over before stroking his cheek.

"Missed you." she sighed.

"How was your morning?" he asked.

"It was…interesting. It was difficult because it didn't feel like I was actually teaching them." she said closing a desk lid that the last class had left open.

"Have you eaten?" he asked.

"Yeah. Minerva came by with some biscuits and shared them with me. She's rattled about something too…"

Her tone was downcast and she seemed troubled.

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" he asked quietly, sitting at the desk she had just sat down on.

Lily seemed to half consider the question and then shook her head.

Snape held her hand and kissed it.

"Tonight, I will run you a nice hot bath and you can tell me about it properly."

Lily smiled faintly and nodded.

"I'd better prepare for my next class. We're doing 'how plumbing was adopted by the wizarding world and improvements made.'"

"Prepare for people to be talking about the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets." Snape sighed.

"That's a legend." she scoffed.

Snape remembered uneasily how Neville Longbottom managed to fly out of the secret entrance to the Chamber of Secrets with Weasley and Lockhart without a scratch and how he had slayed Slytherin's mythical beast with the same sword Dumbledore kept in his office.

Snape decided to keep quiet.

"Have you seen that Umbridge woman?" he asked.

"No." Lily said with a thankful look on her face. "I don't want to. Every time I see her, its like she's thinking of ways to look more creepy."

Snape nodded.

"Don't worry. She's simply a teacher, just like us. There's not much that can be-"

Just then there was the sound of raised voices just beyond the door. It seemed to be coming from the stairs leading to the entrance hall.

Snape got up with Lily just behind. Both had if their wands in hand.

"-If you cannot adhere to the correct forms of punish-"

"Minerva!" a familiar, girlish voice began superciliously. "If the punishment systems here are not working on the students then surely the punishments are too lax!"

"Lax?! Perhaps you aren't familiar with the way things are done at Hogwarts but we tend to think that medieval punishments belong back in the dark ages!" came a flustered Celtic lilt.

"Sometimes." began the voice solemnly. "The tried and tested methods work best. Things here at Hogwarts are lapse!"

Snape moved to look down at the scene where he saw Minerva and that Umbridge woman nearly nose-to-nose, arguing with a backdrop of students watching with their mouths agape.

Umbridge seemed to grow in stature as she puffed her chest out.

"Teachers going off sick haphazardly, hiring people who have had no ministry approved teaching qualifications and letting students get away with blatant breaches of school rules!"

Snape looked to Lily behind him who was gripping her wand tightly.

"This is not the Ministry. This is Hogwarts, a place of tolerance and of education." McGonagall replied coldly. "If you are unhappy here, Professor…" she continued icily. "'You can return to your post at the ministry!"

There was a hush of awe over the students. They had never heard one teacher speak to another like that before. A single, over-excited third year squeaked: 'Yeah!'

"I may have to return to the ministry, Minerva." began Umbridge in a cold, calculating manner. "But it will be only to obtain paper from Pius himself to assert my authority within this sanctuary of lenience!"

And with that Umbridge walked back down the stairs and through the throng of aghast students.

Snape saw Minerva's cheeks that were flushed red soften as she started to wave the children to their designated places. "Go along! Back to Lunch! Go on!"

Lily put her hand over Snape's and gave him a worried glance.

"This isn't good." she stated.

Snape shook his head.

"You'd better check she's alright. I'll go and tell Dumbledore."

"You don't need to."

Dumbledore was walking with a quickened pace through the crowd of slowly dispersing students with a grim look on his face. From his expression, he had seen and heard everything.

He walked straight up to Minerva and spoke softly to her, so softly that Snape could not hear it, nor lip read through his beard. Minerva nodded and then walked with him towards his office.

Lily shook her head.

"This gets better…It really does. Umbridge and Thicknesse are like that-" she stated, crossing her fingers.

"Great. The minister of magic is a puppet for Voldemort and he has a voice box here at Hogwarts." Snape muttered sardonically. "I hope she does bugger off."

"She won't. She's here to cause some damage." Lily replied. "I'll be sacked by Friday morning."

Snape shook his head.

"She doesn't have the authority."

"She will have by the time Thicknesse gets involved."

Snape rubbed his eyes. The short lived respite from the problems seemed to be fading rapidly and he was feeling just as tired as yesterday.

"Remember the good old days where we could, you know…live?" he asked.

Lily gave a weak grunt and shook her head.

"I've been an Auror since I was 20. Can't remember a 'quiet life'."

Snape put his arm around her in the shadows of the columns.

She had seen danger that he had not conceived of. Ran from things and chased down things that he only read about in books.

She had lived with a man that for three days out of the month could rip her apart and not blink.

Suddenly, she seemed stronger than he had ever been, and at the same time vulnerable.

Squeezing her cold hand, he tried to give her some of his own waning strength.

"Knowing Minerva's Celtic temper, I'm surprised she didn't hex her." Snape offered. "Shame, I'd love to see her as a walnut."

Just then, the bell rang. It was time for 5th period.

"I'm due back in…" she began. "See you at Dinner."

Snape watched her run back to the classroom.

With a heavier heart he made his way back to the dungeons where his sixth year students were extremely animated and discussing who the new teachers were and why one of them was talking down to Professor McGonagall.

"Silence." he rumbled quietly. "As you will recall from our last lesson we made the Draught of Living death, a potion so considerably strong that it will make anybody look as though-" he paused looking over the class to ensure he had their undivided attention. "-dead."

Turning to the board he tapped it as writing bloomed on it.

"The antidote to this potion is The Wiggenweld potion. A potion that must be imbibed to completely nullify the effects of the draught. Can anyone tell me where we may find 'Wiggen'?"

There was a stunned silence.

"Of course not. How foolish, I believed I was addressing a class of sixth years who will all be of age next year. The Wiggen tree is also known to muggles as the Mountain Ash and was believed to them to be 'Anti-witching'. Of course, as usual, the muggles had this wrong as they did a great many things and as a result managed to poison themselves frequently with poorly made Wiggenweld potions that were made by squibs and 'cunning men'. Any questions?"

There was a heavy silence.

"Today you will be making a Wiggenweld potion. I will be feeding one of you your draughts from last week and someone else will give them the Wiggenweld potion. The instructions are on the board and in page 76 of 'Advanced Potion Making'. You have

Just under two hours."

As the class began to get to work Snape pointed his wand to the store cupboard as it sprang open with the necessary ingredients within. He recalled with a shudder how he had managed to have a nightmare of he-who-must-not-be-named in there and become sick afterwards.

Watching the students as they brewed their potions he marked this mornings homework and occasionally hissed 'quiet' when the class became too vocal.

His thoughts were racing as usual from Lupin, to Lily, to Dumbledore, to Umbridge. Ministry and The Dark Lord. Spinners End and his chambers.

By the time the hour glass' last spin had completed and the he told the students to put down their stirrers the dungeons had filled with thick green steam.

Snape got up and secretly pointed his wand at a student who was wringing her hands over her steaming cauldron.

She began coughing uncontrollably as the coughing hex became apparent.

Snape handed her a flask of water quickly and urged her to drink.

No sooner had she taken a sip she fell quickly to the floor, her eyes wide open and her breathing still.

The students began to panic, until some of the smarter of the students realized that she had been given the draught disguised as water.

"Silence." Snape barked before pointing at a particularly nervous looking student. "You, Stebbins. Take the pipette and drop a few drops of your potion in her mouth. If you have succeeded, she will awaken and you will receive 5 house points. If you have failed, she will either perish or have an undesired reaction to the potion. No pressure."

The student looked like he was ready to throw up.

With shaking hands he drew the green potion into the glass pipette before precariously dropping several drops to her pale lips.

The class waited with baited breath as Snape kept his hand firmly on a correctly prepared antidote in case Stebbins' failed.

The girl drew a panicked breath and sat up straight, colour and health returning to her instantly.

The class applauded.

Snape gave them a few moments of congratulatory whooping and clapping before he told them to be quiet.

"5 points Stebbins. And Miss. Arkwright, 5 points." he nodded to the girl before flicking his wand at the board. "For homework, I want 3 and a half feet on the historical significance of The Wiggenweld potion, paying particular attention to key events that led to its fame."

The students filed out, pleasantly animated by the lesson.

Snape felt almost pleased his lesson had such an invigorating effect. The effect was short lived as he saw Dumbledore's patronus fly in and with a dark undertone say:

"After you have taken your 6th period, please attend an urgent meeting in my office. The Ministry is coming."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Dumbledore sat with a roll of parchment that had neat, left slanting writing from top to bottom of the page.

"Minister of Magic had this sent over just now. Professor Umbridge took great delight in handing it to me."

Snape tried to read the slanted, upside down writing.

"Essentially, Pius has extended his reach inside the school." he began slowly. "A new post has been created especially for her here. She is to be appointed as of tomorrow morning. 'High Inquisitor' to Hogwarts."

"And what will this post entail?" asked Filius, his sleeves were rolled up and he had a few strange looking purple splodges on his white shirt.

"From what the Minister has written, nothing short of examining every detail of what goes on in Hogwarts. From staffing to curricula."

For the first time, Dumbledore's quiet confidence had disappeared leaving him looking rather defeated.

"But the Ministry has no place at Hogwarts!" Pomona snapped. "This is a school."

"This new power gives her the right to scrutinize and uphold educational decrees."

"What are 'ducational decrees?" asked Hagrid, stooping in the background as not to damage any of the ceilings.

"They're something that we try to follow as loosely as possible." Dumbledore responded. "They are ministry decrees designed to keep things 'orderly'. Fudge signed them but rarely expected strict enforcements. And from what I can see on this letter, more are to follow."

"This is preposterous. We can't carry on like this Albus. She's been in the school less than two days and she's changing everything." Minerva said.

"With the Ministry in its current state, it's impossible to gauge what this could mean for us." Dumbledore responded.

Professor Trelawney made a weak moan of worry.

"Are the students safe?" asked Lily, changing the subject.

"I don't think Voldemort is foolish enough to use a puppet to take this school." Poppy surmised.

"I've had three students come to me this morning to complain that today's lesson was text book based." Filius reported shrilly.

"I've heard other students complaining about her demanding they get a different DADA book." stated Pomona.

"-several points deducted for asking questions."

"-Class detention."

Snape looked awkwardly to Lily.

"If I'm not careful I'll lose my 'most unpleasant teacher' award."

Lily set her jaw.

"How far are you going to let her go, Dumbledore?" she asked.

The other teachers looked to her, then to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore considered this for a moment.

"I think we should perhaps continue cautiously. Voldemort himself is at this time keeping quiet and under the radar. It seems to benefit us to do the same."

Pomona rolled her eyes.

"Are you certain, Albus? That Voldemort is behind the Ministry?"

"Without a doubt."

Snape looked to Filius.

"Any news on Lupin?" he asked.

"The charm seems to be five-fold. I managed to lift one of the shields, but unfortunately that led to one of the others kicking in. Lupin is now covered with boils and pustules. As you can tell…" he nodded to his soiled shirt.

Snape sighed.

"I'll make a cure for boils for him."

"It is progress. As soon as Lupin revives, he can tell us what happened." Pomona said with a glimmer of hope.

"He had time before hand to tell us." Lily muttered.

"It could be part of the curse for him to be unable to tell us." Dumbledore added.

"Nevertheless, it is a slow process. But we are getting there." Filius piped up.

"Any news on Charity's whereabouts?" Lily asked.

"No. Auror's are searching for her as we speak, but dark magic could be leading them off the trail." Dumbledore responded

"Any news on the Malfoys?" Snape asked.

"Silent as the grave." Dumbledore said, looking at him.

"So what do we do? Do we just stand by while she pries? Do we tell her everything she wants to know or do we keep silent." asked Professor Vector from her seat besides the fireplace/

"I think we should just tell her what she asks and feign ignorance on all other matters." muttered Snape.

"She won't like that." Hagrid near chuckled.

"She'll have to deal with it." Lily snarled.

"Use caution. Speak very little. Be polite and courteous and be mindful of what you say in her presence. That goes double for you Hagrid." Dumbledore advised, peering over his glasses at the giant.

Hagrid looked suitably abashed. He had a nasty habit of letting things slip.

"If that is all, you may return to your quarters. It may benefit the heads of houses to reassure their students about this new post and where applicable advise caution."

Snape had an idea that his house may be delighted by Umbridge's 'Wizard Blood' mania.

"I will try and speak to my house, but some of them may be happy with her appointment." Snape replied.

Minerva shook her head.

"This is my entire fault. I provoked her."

"With respect Minerva, I think if someone had sneezed on her porridge she would have done this. I think she's been looking for an excuse to exercise her politics over this school." Professor Dumbledore said.

Minerva nodded but looked dejected.

The room fell silent for a few moments while the faculty collected their thoughts and then Hagrid made the first move to the door.

"Gotta feed the Thestrals before sundown."

The others made movements towards the door. As Snape ushered Lily out, he looked back and saw Minerva place a comforting hand on Albus' shoulder.

Snape and Lily made their way back towards the dungeons. Again, Lily seemed despondent too, but he had an idea it was nothing to do with that pink menace.

"I'll go and speak to the Slytherin's, I will be back soon. Go and make yourself comfortable."

Lily nodded and went to his chambers.

As he uttered the password for the Slytherin room and stepped through the portrait hole.

The students were all gathered, Snape fathomed that they had been sent there by Dumbledore before hand.

He addressed the assembled students about Umbridge. As expected, a great many of the professed to their families being admirers. A few others didn't seem that fussed about a new teacher. Nobody seemed to understand the real reason she was here, and perhaps it was better that way.

Stepping back through the portrait hole he walked back to his chambers and opened the door. Tapping the lock behind him with his wand he saw Lily lying on the bed, curled up.

"Lily, my love. What's wrong?"

He walked over and knelt beside the bed.

She looked to him and stroked his cheek.

"It's just getting to me today, Sev. Everything…"

Snape nodded and stroked her hair.

"I know Lily. I know." He sighed and looked around. "This place isn't much of a place to feel happier."

"You're here…" she mumbled and smiled.

"What can I do to make you feel better?" he asked softly with a reassuring smile.

Lily gave a weak smile as if she were daring to ask something.

"…Do you still have your old copy of Beedle the Bard?" she asked, a feeble flame in her eyes.

"Lily…" he began. "I haven't opened that book for years."

"You read it to me next to the river." she smiled dreamily. "You taught me about charms and magical people who could turn into rabbits."

"And fountains that made the impossible possible?" he asked, stroking her hand.

She nodded.

"Let me see if I can find it."

Snape went under the bed and removed a large, battered second-hand trunk that had the letters 'E D P' written on, then badly scratched out and the letters 'S S' etched in roughly underneath.

Opening it with a creak, the musty scent that was now fading in Spinners end of mildew and mould escaped. Pulling the battered copy from under a set of grey, faded robes he shut the case roughly and pushed it under his bed again.

"It was my great grandmothers." he began uneasily, taking the delicate book and placing it on the bed, kneeling in front of it as if it were a holy relic.

"Will you read to me?" she asked.

Snape nodded and opened the book. Its spine cracked in a faint protest and the browning pages threatened to loosen under his careful fingertips.

"Where do we begin?" he asked with an indulgent smile.

"The beginning." she responded.

After dinner that night, the pair retired quickly to their chambers. Lily pulled off her clothes, threw them into the laundry hamper and pulled on her usual night gown as Snape folded his clothing carefully over the chair for tomorrow.

She climbed into bed and he climbed in besides her. She wrapped her arms around him and cuddled into his bare chest, seeking warmth or comfort.

He kissed her forehead and stroked her hair slowly until her breathing gave way to light snores.

"I love you." he said quietly as he stroked her hair. "You're the most precious thing in my life. I love you."

She simply snored softly in reply.


	15. Chapter 15

**((NB: The following chapter contains adult themes that some younger readers may find unsuitable)**

**Chapter 15**

It was a few months but the school was in a state of truce.

Dolores did as she wanted, and started to issue ridiculous decrees as well as sitting in on teachers lessons, smiling, clearing her throat pointedly and asking quite intrusive questions.

The teachers lounge had become a boiling pot for swearing and ranting about her and it usually emptied pretty swiftly when she arrived.

She had placed Hagrid on report and was also watching Professor Trelawney with an annoying close eye, questioning her on her ancestry and her correct prediction rates.

Snape did not care for Trelawney greatly but was getting rather miffed at seeing her large eyes swimming with tears every time he saw her. He did not even feel the urge to ask her if she could have predicted this.

Lily had, like Filius been playing everything by the book. Answering politely, performing well and encouraging her students to speak well in class. As a muggleborn, she was at risk just as much as 'half-breeds' and had to keep the pink peril sweet.

Apparently, Lily was a hit amongst students who enjoyed fresh, young, female blood in the school.

He had heard Hufflepuff girls commenting on her great fashion sense and Ravenclaw boys speaking suggestively about her (Their detention lasted two weeks).

As for Umbridge sitting in on his own classes as she scribbled with some sort of flamingo quill on sickly pink parchment he gave very little away and did very little to bother her but more than once she and McGonagall had come to locking horns.

Dumbledore was absent more frequently these days but would not say where was going though he often popped back to check on Lupin who was still in his coma.

Filius had broken 4 of the charms on the curse but the final curse was the most difficult to crack.

The curse had been diminished greatly and now Lupin was no longer feverish but still unconscious. The boils had faded and the scars were no longer threatening to burst into blood.

Tonks had remained at his side at all times and had appeared to have changed her hair colour. He remembered from her school days that she was a metamorphmagus and was able to change her appearance at will. But he didn't think much to her new hair colour, or her new style. She looked morose and morbid with dull brown hair, dull brown eyes and her reluctance to leave the man who had slept since September.

She had done her job admirably, arranging for his removal to the dungeons during his transformations.

Remarkably, the transformations, according to Tonks who watched from beyond a grated metal door, were peaceful and he remained a sleeping wolf, weakened as if by injury.

Lily had spent a few free periods talking to her. The pair had closeted themselves together in Snape's chambers drinking tea and chatting.

He was happy that Lily was feeling better and had come out of her depression. She had found a female friend near her own age group and was happy to chat about things she could not share with him. Female things, no doubt.

But Charity Burbage was still missing and Voldemort was still largely under the radar though news appeared to be filtering through of suspected death eater attacks on muggles. Wizards and Witches disappearing almost daily and random attacks on landmarks explained away as mere power shortages, bad winds and poor muggle workmanship.

The Daily Prophet said nothing of course but by Christmas there was a lot more going on than anybody cared to admit.

Neville Longbottom had been a particular sore point for Umbridge. He had 'acted out' in lessons, questioning her. Even Miss. Granger had questioned her teaching methods to her face which had earned her no favours but recently, the insurrection had stopped suddenly and they were now model students. In fact, even in his own lessons they were remarkably calm whereas other students had outbursts and had to be sent to poppy for calming remedies.

He couldn't figure out why, but Longbottom and is friends; they were calmly accepting the poor teaching they were receiving from the menace in fuchsia.

When the Christmas holidays started Snape's chambers had been taken over by tinsel, holly, mistletoe and wreaths. Gifts had started to appear and were being wrapped with tags for people Snape did not so much consider friends but acquaintances and suddenly cupboards were magically locked with Lily's own brand of seals.

He had studied dark arts.

He had worked with curse breakers from Gringotts.

But Lily's charms were too complicated for him to undo.

Snape found that women seemed to enjoy the stresses of Christmas while men tended to avoid it at all costs. Something he found himself doing as much as possible as he avoided female students laden down, bearing gifts from Hogsmede for their friends and family and boys sulking as they spent their pocket money on presents for others.

It was quite peaceful as for once he appreciated that Lily could take the stresses of Christmas for him and not have to worry about what book to get Dumbledoor, or what biscuits to get for Minerva.

However, on Christmas Eve Lily broke some rather delicate news to him.

"Sev. Don't be angry, but I've invited some people over for Christmas dinner." she began.

"Oh?" he asked, looking above his daily prophet which was questioning the sanity of another prominent wizard in the wizengamot.

"James and Sirius."

"No." Snape replied shortly, shutting his paper and putting it aside. "Absolutely not."

"They saved your life!" Lily began, clearly expecting this battle.

"Regardless of which, I do not want to spend my Christmas day sat with that insane quidditch player and his long haired hippie friend."

"Please?" she begged.

"Why?" he asked, his black eyes flashing with exaspheration.

"Because we owe them, and we need to keep ties with the rest of the order. Lupin is down and half the order are either undercover or having to keep their cover because of the ministry."

"Owls Lily. Owls." He began. "We can use Owls."

"But Sev, we don't have any friends we just mix with." she complained, folding her arms.

"There's a reason for that. All through school the pair of them treated me like dragon dung."

"They've grown." she offered.

"Yes, into more irritating men. I don't want to deal with them." he said in a final tone.

"But Sev…please?" she begged letting her arms drop to her sides.

Snape couldn't understand where this desire had come from. If they were female friends, or mutual friends (if they had any) he could understand but why Potter?!

There was a twist of unease as he remembered how much Potter desired Lily. How much he had craved her in school and even now still made remarks on how he would want her.

"He wants you. I've seen the way he looks at you?" he bit deliberately. "The way his eyes move on you?"

"The bloody baron has more of a chance than James Potter." Lily said folding her arms again. "I just feel we owe them for rescuing us both." she sighed.

"And it's taken this long to repay the debt…?" Snape asked.

"Yes. We're a real couple now Sev, let's show the world?"

Snape knew that they had to hide their relationship in the school (and there had been near misses and whispers), but he couldn't blame her for wanting to make it official in adult circles.

Seeing their chambers, their bed, their little home, it may drill it back to Potter the pair were now 'solid' and not for cracking.

Snape appeared to consider it for a few dark moments, his wand clutched tightly in his hand, a green, foul smelling smoke emitting from its tip.

"Alright. But if he says one word that I find unsuitable, he's getting hexed."

Lily nodded, utterly placated and carried on wrapping various gifts with a cheerful humming.

By the time Christmas morning had arrived Lily had managed to work herself into frenzy, organising and planning that she slept through and left Snape waiting for her until 10.30 am with a pile of gifts he had purchased for her using owl order.

Waking up, she apologised and kissed his head before pointing her wand at a previously locked cupboard and letting a whole manner of wrapped goodies fall out.

He did not want to unwrap his first but instead insisted she unwrapped hers.

She opened the gifts like an excited child though the bags under her eyes showed that she had been overworking herself.

He had (amongst perfume and other feminine items) bought her a watch pendant that instead of the times showed the aspects of planets and the moons location. It was a little pricey he had to admit, given its size and function but he did not mind spending it on the woman in his life who made him happy.

She thanked him profusely, slipping it on over her head and at once started to point to his pile of gifts.

He unwrapped his gifts and found that she had bought him a rather large and detailed dictionary of plants and minerals used in potion making that he had admired on a trip to Hogsmede a few weeks earlier as well as a new eagle feather quill with a solid gold nib and ink that changed colour depending on the tone of your writing.

He kissed her cheek and thanked her and she responded by throwing her arms around him and embracing him. As soon as he let go, she bounced off the bed and started pointing her wand at various parts of the room, cleaning, tidying and improving it beyond recognition.

Flowers appeared here, goblets were shined up there. Spiders were evicted and their homes destroyed as plumes of different coloured smoke altered their room from 'acceptable' to 'party acceptable'.

Snape could do nothing but sit on the bed in dressing gown and start on his book as she spun around fixing the place up.

By lunchtime wood had been waxed and polished, a table had been laid and a kitchen elf by the name of Dobby had been excitedly discussing dinner plans with her.

Snape yawned and went towards his wardrobe but found new set of robes hung up and ready.

"…Lily?" he asked, picking them up with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, you're wearing those tonight." she stated distractedly.

"They're dress robes." he informed her, looking at the style.

"Yes." she nodded and headed towards the bathroom.

"And why am I wearing dress robes?" he asked.

"Because of our guests?"

"Am I meant to impress them or something?" he asked sardonically.

"Yes." she responded with a frank honesty and began running the shower.

"Alright…" he sighed and put them on the bed before beginning to get undressed.

He could hear Lily in the bathroom humming a song by the Wyrd Sisters and smell some of the feminine items he had bought her.

He smiled weakly and did not mind being forced into dress robes (albeit in his usual colour) for guests he did not feel desperate to impress.

As he dressed, he pulled a comb through his hair and sat back down, reading.

He was technically off duty today and had no reason to leave his room as other teachers had taken that baton for him. They said that as it was his and Lily's first Christmas together as a couple they deserved some peace. And it was welcome.

Lily appeared back in the bedroom with a green towel wrapped around her as she picked at some of the chocolate someone from the Auror department had sent her.

Snape looked at her.

Her skin was as pure as alabaster and was speckled with perhaps the most perfect, barely noticeable freckles you could ever wish to see. Her red hair hung limply around her shoulders in dark red curls and her beautiful body was just aching to be touched.

Putting his new book down, he walked over and pressed his lips against her shoulder, his hands creeping around her middle as he stood behind her, inhaling her scent.

"You smell divine." he mumbled, planting warm kisses on her skin.

Her eyes closed as she smiled, enjoying the attention.

"Sev…"

His hands slipped inside the towel as he began tracing his finger tips on her perfect skin.

"Hmmm, I could have you right now…"

"Oh Sev, don't. I have so much to do and you're making it so hard." she breathed weakly.

"Likewise." he muttered with a smile and pressed his pelvis against the back of her.

She gave a soft gasp as she realized what he meant and giggled weakly.

"Sev, I really have so much to do…don't…" she begged.

His hands moved up and cupped her perfect breasts. They felt so warm, so soft and so flawless as he rubbed his thumbs against her pert nipples.

Snape began to move his kisses up to her neck and began to whisper in her ear.

"I want you. Right now…"

She giggled weakly and turned to him, letting her towel fall.

At once he picked her up and pressed her against the tapestry wall, her bare nakedness wrapped around his hips as he pressed his swollen crotch against her.

Her eyes closed weakly in desire as he kissed her breasts desperately, supporting her with one arm and fumbling with his trousers with the other.

"Lily…Lily…Lily…" he intoned as she pawed at his jacket.

He was just about to release the pressure in his trousers when there was a sudden knocking at the door.

"Severus, its Albus."

Snape swore into Lily's chest and she pushed him away gently, smiling with cheeks as red as fire.

Picking up her towel, she scampered back to the bathroom chuckling as Snape forced his protesting manhood back into its boxers.

Opening the door with a scarlet tinge to his cheeks he looked at Dumbledore with something short of impatience.

"Headmaster?" he muttered.

"Severus, sorry to disturb you but I wanted to inform you that tonight and tomorrow I will be away from the school with some of the order."

"Oh." Snape nodded. "I see. I trust Minerva is in charge?"

"As always." Dumbledore nodded. "I will send you a patronus if anything is amiss."

"Thank you headmaster." he nodded.

"Have a pleasant Christmas." smiled Dumbledore and left, wearing his travelling cloak.

By the time Snape had locked the door and made it back to Lily she was already in a state of putting on her make up and preparing to put on her dress, curling her hair around her wand.

Whatever they had started would have to wait.


	16. Chapter 16

**((NB: The following chapter contains adult themes and sexual content that some younger readers may find unsuitable. You have been warned.)**

**Chapter 16**

By the time Potter and Sirius had arrived Potter was already a little bit worse for wear. He embraced Lily, creasing her red and green gown and apologising in a slurred voice. Sirius quickly explained that had had-pre dinner drinks with Arthur and Molly Weasley before stopping by the Auror headquarters for another drink.

Potter had been unable to hold his fire whiskey and had taken his seat at the table where Snape had intended to sit. Next to Lily.

Lily stroked Snape's arm to placate him and as he sat beside Sirius Black who was watching Potter's behaviour carefully.

Snape had barely spoken but to give them a grudging welcome and planned to continue this for as long as he could as he watched Potter, who he had recently become less hateful of turn more and more into the boy who had bullied him mercilessly.

"Lily…" Potter slurred. "You really need to get some red and gold in here; it looks like Azkaban in here. Lily, conjure something red and gold…"

"I think the décor is fine, James." Lily smiled as she laid a napkin across her lap. "Besides, the Gryffindor spirit is more than alive in this room."

"Stinks of Potions in here." he said and rubbed his nose before tucking his napkin into his collar.

"Well, it is a potions master's room." she replied and tapped her wand on the bottle before letting it fill up their glasses.

"What is for dinner, Lily?" asked Sirius eloquently.

"Goose and Turkey with trimmings. The elves have outdone themselves with the spread this year." she smiled.

"We should totally go and take them some later, just wrap it up, break into the Kitchen and just have supper with them. They're so cool!" Potter declared.

"Or we could just eat." Snape began solemnly.

"Yes." Lily smiled, grateful he had joined in and tapped the table with her wand.

At once, the dishes appeared on the small table in silver tureens and on silver platters.

Potter began to serve himself immediately as Snape looked coldly at Lily conveying his disapproval at their drunken guest.

"Any news on Charity?" Sirius asked softly as he ladled sprouts onto his plate with an almost uncharacteristic delicateness.

"No. Auror's are out looking but it's almost like she's just fallen off the face of the earth." sighed Lily. "I'm happy to keep teaching in her place in the meantime but it's becoming hard to keep a smile on your face while that hag is waltzing around like she owns the place."

"Hag?" Sirius asked, looking from Snape to Lily.

"Dolores Umbridge." muttered Snape.

"Oh God, that old beast." Sirius said rolling his eyes and serving himself turkey. "I remember Arthur talking about her. He said she's a disgrace to the ministry, or at least what the ministry was."

"She hates Muggleborns." Lily sighed and pierced a few carrots on the end of her fork.

"She hates anything that isn't pure blood. We still get Christmas cards from her at Grimmauld place. She thinks my mother is still alive. She'd do anything to keep in with the purebloods."

"Is she pureblood?" asked Lily.

"Is she bollocks." Potter chuckled. "She's half blood and she knows it. We get Christmas cards off her too. I always send them back with hexes."

Snape put his fork down and reached for the cranberry sauce.

"She's made life very difficult for Remus." Sirius began. "He's had a hell of a time trying to find a job since she wrote that legislation. Luckily, Dumbledore isn't dizzied by the Ministry and pretty much gave her the finger when he took on Lupin. I dare say she's had her eye on getting into this school ever since he hired him."

"Have you been to check on him?" Lily asked.

Sirius nodded.

"Flitwick has done a terrific job. Dora, my cousin sends me letters every day on his progress. From where he was, to where he is now."

"Severus has been providing all the right potions." Lily began. "He's made the Lycanthropy potion, blood replenishment, boil removal potions, antidotes and burn healing paste. He's also been through 15 bottles of dittany."

Sirius looked to Snape who refused to meet his gaze, instead focusing on Sirius' cuff.

"Nice job Snape." he nodded, looking impressed. "Mind you, you were always top of our class in Potions. I remember that once you brewed a top notch Jawbind potion."

Snape put down his fork.

"If I recall correctly one of your friends fired a firework into it and it covered half the class before Professor Slughorn could mark it."

Lily looked awkwardly to Snape.

"That was me." Potter beamed and imitated the occasion. "Brilliant shot."

"Yeah…" Sirius responded uncomfortably. "That was a bit…stupid."

Snape nodded and carried on eating.

"Filius thinks he could have the final curse gone by January and then we can find out the truth from Remus." Sirius smiled.

"Good." nodded Lily. "It'll be nice to have Umbridge gone."

"She said anything other than threatening to sack people?" Sirius asked.

"Not really, but she's like a bloody rash. She's everywhere." Lily said.

"She's worse than a rash, you can treat a rash." Snape added quietly. "And believe me I'd-"

Potter suddenly belched and burst out laughing.

Snape looked coldly at him and carried on eating.

It seemed as though Sirius and Lily were the only people speaking and as much as they tried to involve Potter and Snape they just wouldn't speak for more than a few lines. As Lily tapped away the rest of the left over she went to pour some more wine.

"I think Potter has had enough." Snape muttered darkly.

"No way. I'm like a sponge; I can just take as much drink as I can. One time at Puddlemere united we had a mead drinking contest and I got SO sick…"

Potter continued to reel off stories of his time at Puddlemere united until Lily conjured the pudding. Every so often she'd mouth 'Sorry' to Snape as Potter got louder and louder and Snape kept gazing longingly at the bed and deliberately scraping his plate with his spoon to put uncomfortable percussion into the long stories that put Snape in mind of Lockhart, the useless Defence against the Dark Arts teacher they had two years ago.

The conversation lulled as Potter became quiet, unsure if he was going to be sick or just belch again as Sirius kept looking at his pocket watch, wondering how much time he had before Potter passed out.

"How did you get here?" Lily asked.

"Motorbike." He grinned. "I've got the pillion added in case he gets too worse for wear-as long as he can hold on that is!"

"Can you drive if you've drunk? In the muggle world if you drink and drive you get arrested." Lily explained.

"We won't be taking the roads." he grinned. "Besides, we have a 'self-fly' feature."

"I remember when I had to fly home drunk once…" Lily began. "I was 21 and celebrating my first arrest at the Auror office, I was way too drunk to disapparate and the floo network kept spitting me back out! So I had to fl-"

"Sniv', why don't you wash your hair?"

Snape looked up at Potter who was sat opposite him and dropped his spoon onto his near empty plate with a tumultuous clatter.

"Prongs." Sirius began in a disparaging tone.

Potter was staring back at Snape with unfocused eyes and a drunken confidence.

"It's just; it's so greasy, and so dull and yucky. I mean, how does Evans even touch that shit?"

Snape felt his hand slide to where his wand was in his pocket under the table as Lily started to clear away quickly but Snape held up his free hand to pause Lily's panic.

"I think you've had too much James, let's get you home eh?" Sirius said with a nervous smile.

Potter stood up and shook his head.

"But the party's just started! Come on! Let's go to the kitchens and get the Elves tipsy and organise an Elf Olympics?" He took a swig from the bottle. "Or maybe we could break into Honeydukes, eat loads of sweets and get sick!" He took another swig of the drink. "Or even…" his eyes unfocused and he yawned before sidling over to Snape's bed. "Just…Let me close my eyes for a second…"

He then proceeded to fall face first into the bed and started to snore.

Sirius and Lily looked both shocked and relieved.

"What the-?" Sirius began.

Snape stood up and carried on cleaning up with an air of innocence.

"What did you do, Snape?" asked Sirius darkly.

Snape set down the plates he had collected and pulled out a small, empty phial from his pocket.

"It's a sleeping draught. He'll be fine." He put the small phial on the table next to Sirius. "Used a refilling charm to slip it into the bottle. It only lasts 8 hours; he'll be fine by tomorrow morning."

Sirius looked half exasperated, half impressed and stared at Snape before nodding.

"That was pretty cool."

Snape nodded once to accept the compliment and then carried on clearing up as Sirius went over to Potter to try and pick him up.

He carried to dirty plates to Lily who was placing them on a small wooden hostess trolley who smiled at him and kissed his cheek.

"That was very well played, Sev."

"Naturally. You think I'd just hex him? You watch someone be an arsehole long enough you learn to interpret their behaviour. And how to defeat them."

Lily smiled and rosyness came to her cheeks.

"You're blushing, Miss. Evans." he said quietly, putting his hand on her back.

She looked back to make sure Sirius was still busy with James and leaned in, her cheek grazing his curtain of hair.

"I've been waiting for a good time to let you know all evening, but…I'm not wearing panties."

Snape looked at her with shock and a strange squirm of excitement in his stomach.

She smiled and tapped the dirty plates which vanished immediately.

Snape wanted to get Sirius and Potter out of the room instantly.

"It's been lovely having you all. But Lily and I have-patrols in the morning so we really must be getting to bed." Snape began with a sense of urgency when Sirius shook his head.

"He won't move. He's heavier than Hagrid I swear."

"You're a wizard." Snape Snapped. "Levitate him to that motorbike."

"What if he falls out somewhere over the Lake District? He'll die!"

"He won't. That sleeping draught could put out an elephant." he continued, feeling his heart beat faster.

"I'm not risking it." Sirius looked desperately to Lily. "Could we crash here tonight?"

"No." Snape began loudly. "No. Not in a twelve blue moons. We have had a pus-filled werewolf in that bed; we have had Aurors piddling in and out! We both work long hours and it is Christmas and I want my bed!"

Sirius gave Snape a strange look as he backed away from the bed.

"Dude, it's just a bed…"

It wasn't just a bed.

Snape had just been rapidly planning a very romantic and carnal evening in that bed and was hoping to get his Christmas treat in that bed shortly and now it had been stolen by James Fucking Potter!

"Sev, it's okay. Let them have it. It's fine. We'll crash somewhere else. Come on…I want to go to the kitchens and thank the elves. You two settle down here, and we'll catch you in the morning."

She then led Snape out of their chambers.

Snape couldn't believe it.

He had just been done out of a night of sensual bliss with the beautiful Lily Evans.

At Christmas.

After being interrupted this morning.

After learning she was not wearing underwear.

After being desperate to rip off her clothes and have her on the dinner table all evening he was to spend tonight shivering on a floor, trying to sleep with the most uncomfortable of bodily malfunctions.

He felt as if Gryffindor had won the cup, and the Quidditch championship, and that Gilderoy Lockhart was coming back to teach. All because of Potter.

James Fucking Potter.

Lily was holding his hand, looking absolutely stunning in that dress, her hair was lightly curled and if it was possible she looked more beautiful than she ever had before.

Perhaps it was because he wanted her so badly; perhaps it was because she was smiling so serenely. Perhaps it was just because it was Christmas and he wanted her in his arms. But he felt wounded and defeated.

Instead of climbing the stairs to the main hall where they could access the kitchens, she took him down the corridor to his potions store room where she tapped the lock and led him in.

Confused, but full of self-centred misery he followed her as she locked the door with another tap of her wand.

"Lily? Why are we h-?"

She silenced him with a passionate kiss as she began to undo the buttons on his jacket.

Getting the idea immediately, he began to reach for the zip on the back of her dress but couldn't find it with his sweating, fumbling hands.

Her own hands seemed to give up with the whole idea of undressing him and went straight for the fly on his trousers where they pulled down the zip roughly and pulled down his trousers to just below his boxer's line. His boxers followed with indecent haste.

Snape's hands grabbed at her dress and pulled it up quickly, it seemed to be the length of a tapestry as his hands grasped for the hem. Finding it, he lifted it way up and slid his hands between her legs. The soft, scant hair between her legs was already moist for him.

She had been wanting this just as much as him.

He could not wait.

He could not wait anymore; he couldn't concentrate on the soft, loving foreplay he had come to enjoy with her.

He wanted desperate, animalistic sex. Right now.

Lifting her up as he did earlier this morning, he held her in his arms, pushing her against the wall.

He worried at first it had been too rough but when he saw her gasp in delight he knew she wanted it that way too. Making a growl of desire he pushed her against the wall, and kissed her neck as he fumbled with his manhood and slipped it against her hot, moist opening.

She nodded, almost desperately, holding him close.

He pushed inside her and heard her groan in pleasure as she gripped the shoulders of his jacket in satisfaction.

"Yes…" she groaned.

He supported her, gripping her bare backside with his hand, his other hand on her back as he pumped his hips forcefully, moving rapidly inside her.

She was gasping, she was moaning. She was swearing under her breath.

Her eyes rolling as he thrust in and out of her.

Moving up and down the wall.

Ripples of pleasure swimming through her.

She was so goddamn beautiful.

He buried his face in her neck, kissing the perspiring skin, his lips inches away from her ears as he grunted softly against her skin, his hand slipping up to support her neck, gripping her hair as he moved harder and faster.

She gripped his hair and rolled her head back against the wall as she tightened around his hardness suddenly, her whole body becoming rigid.

"God, Lily…" he groaned. "You're…You're…"

"Yes!" she gasped and gripped his hair tighter in her fist as she started to climax.

He felt her tremor around him, her whole body taut as she wrapped her legs around him, pulling him tighter and tighter inside him, enjoying his length as she came. Gripping the side of the large book case that served as a potions store, he shook violently as he rocked his hips, close to his own orgasm.

Potions bottles shook from their shelves, smashing on the floor. The bookcase banged violently against the wall as he grunted into her sweaty shoulder as he spilled inside her with a gasp of relief.

His head was swimming with the sensation of pure ecstasy as he held her shaking body in his arms, feeling her drain him of every last drop.

Catching his breath, he looked up at her as she relaxed back against the wall, a look of hazy pleasure and delighted exhaustion in her face.

He leaned up and kissed her, stroking her face and admiring her. She giggled weakly and leaned down and kissed him again, stroking his hair.

"Come in dear…What's the matter?"

"I have something to tell you. I'm so scared. If I'm found out…"

"Not to worry dear. I will make sure you are taken care of. Now what's wrong?"

"I was just on my way to the girls bathroom…and I heard a noise from the potions store…"

"What did you hear dear?"

"I heard…" the girl faltered, tears in her voice.

"What did you hear dear…?" asked the woman.

"I heard the potions master and the Muggle Studies professor…doing 'it'…"

"Just to clarify dear…" continued Dolores Umbridge, her brown curls set in pink rollers as she sat behind her desk in the DADA office. "You heard…whom?"

"Professor Snape and Professor Evans…" the girl stopped crying like magic.

"And you are certain it is them?"

"Very…"

Dolores gave an unpleasant smile.

"Not to worry, Pansy. Go back to your dorm and try to forget about it. I will make sure this is dealt with accordingly." she began, reaching for a sheaf of pink parchment.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

It was a somewhat bearable start to the new term.

Snape was glad to put Christmas behind him. Having to give Potter a tonic the morning after his heavy drinking was almost too much of a temptation to spike. To avoid doing this, he made it in front of Lily who was still quite chipper after the night before.

The potions closet had taken a whole morning to clean up and replenish after the events that took place and the pair had left the room the next morning looking as solemn as they could given they had taken part in their first 'mischievous' love making session.

New term started on January the 4th and Lily and Snape returned to school life.

Surprisingly, Dumbledore had returned with no news at all and seemed to be in a state of quiet celebration at this lack of news whereas Filius was ready to break the final curse and had drafted in the help of a Gringott's curse breaker by the name of Bill Weasley.

At the start of term breakfast Snape looked down the table to see if Dolores Umbridge was still present and felt his heart sink and hit a stone floor in his stomach as she smiled sweetly back up at him. She seemed to be in a state of positive bliss this morning as she happily sipped at her tea and toyed with her porridge that had a shade of pink glowing from it.

Professor Sprout had complained that she was due in her lesson this morning and with a shudder he remembered that Umbridge often popped in on his second period to be a general nuisance and ask stupid questions while he was trying to explain the finer points of a wit sharpening potion to his fourth years. Lily had whispered in his ear before departing for her classroom on the fifth floor that she loved watching the bamboozled look on her face when she explained simple muggle things such as television (to her older years) and the London Underground.

Heading back to his classroom which he had happily left a few weeks earlier and found that it was just as drab and lifeless as he had left it.

The morning lessons were full of telling students what their exams would entail and what he expected from them from now on.

He often enjoyed the first week back generally as he could just point his wand at the board and have them copy down what they needed to know for the next term and what they should read up on and if they so much as raised their head they would be on the receiving end of a lecture explaining what wizards who failed their exams did.

The morning passed without incident as he sat at his desk marking essays that had laughable errors and infuriating mistakes that made him scribble nasty remarks in red ink in the margins of the page such as: "Oh good, Tom needs a dish scrubber at the leaky cauldron…' and 'I'm sure you'll make a marvellous broomstick dummy.'

But to his surprise, Dolores Umbridge did not attend any of his morning lessons. In fact, students had been remarking they hadn't seen her all day and that her classes were 'study' periods to be taken in the library.

Going to Lunch with a remarkably buoyant feeling he sat down next to Lily and asked her if she had seen her this morning.

She shook her head happily and added more salt to her tomato soup before chatting to him how one of her 3rd years had asked her how Muggle dentists remove teeth without magic. The poor boy had ended up passing out and being sick into a bicycle helmet she had brought in for them to study.

Snape checked his timetable and groaned. He had his 4th years next.

"Oh joy." he sighed and folded it back into his pocket before looking to the tables. "Gryffindor and Slytherin."

"Slytherin are your house Sev, you must like them!" she said, dipping her bread into the soup.

"Pansy Parkinson has had it in for me since I gave her detention and I'm running out of ways to tell her to keep her nose out of other peoples business. She seems to think because her boyfriend has fled the country she has the right to act like the wailing widow." he sighed.

"Just keep setting her lines." Lily suggested. "She's just grumpy because she can't snog him anymore."

Snape nodded solemnly and carried on eating.

He looked quickly to the Slytherin table where Pansy Parkinson was chattering furtively to her friends, stealing an occasional glance at the staff table before grinning.

"She's up to something. I swear, if I catch her doing anything untoward, she will be scrubbing the Owlery by hand for weeks!"

Lily pushed her plate away and got up, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Finished?" he asked.

"Yep, got to set up a football table for my 6th years. Promised I'd explain how football works?"

"Surely you just kick it?" he asked. "The foot-ball?"

"More to it than that, Sev." she smiled and resisted the urge to kiss his head.

Snape finished not long after and headed back to his classroom in the dungeons.

On the way he deducted points from Hufflepuff as he caught the same students as he did last time charming their own bodily expulsions again and ticked off a Ravenclaw prefect for 'lurking'.

As he waited for his 4th years to arrive he placed a potion on each of their desks before writing on the board: "On your desk is a poison. Using your books I want you to identify it by scent, texture, colour and behaviour. DO NOT DRINK IT."

As his students lined in, a few of them looked at the bottles on their desk, one or two took a cursory sniff, and a few gave it a side ways glance and looked at the board and already Miss. Granger had her hand up.

"I have not yet said anything, Miss. Granger so you should have nothing to say to Me." he said abruptly and she pulled her hand down before speaking to Longbottom who shrugged and peered into his own concoction.

"As you can see…" he began looking at the board. "You have a beaker of an unidentified poison on your desk. The point of this lesson is simple. By the end of the lesson I want you to identify the poison and give reasons for your de-NOTT, do not put your finger or any other appendage into that poison because I will not be accompanying you to St. Mungo's when it drops off."

Theodore Nott removed his finger from the jar and put his hand on the desk.

"…Give reasons for your deduction. For homework, you will be writing an essay on the potion I have put in front of you."

"Sir, I know what it is." Miss. Granger began.

"5 Points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn." he began sharply. "Clearly, Miss Granger, you enjoy showing off in front of your classmates and think that this work is too easy for you?"

Miss. Granger kept quiet.

"Perhaps not." Snape continued. He turned over the hourglass on his desk. "You have one hour. Begin."

The students all set about trying to look at their potions. Some inserted stirrers and watched as the potion gobbled them up. Others tried to tip some of theirs out into other jars only to watch the solutions crawl back inside their previous container.

Someone lit a fire under theirs and watched as the potion sank through the glass jar containing it and extinguished it causing the desk to sizzle unpleasantly.

"Tell me, Longbottom." began Snape. "Is there ANYTHING you can do?"

Longbottom gave Snape a cold stare and shrugged.

"Defeating Voldemort?"

There was a gasp from the class.

"Your fame does not earn you any credit here, boy." Snape sneered. "There are cleaning supplies in the back of the closet, clean up this mess. And use your dragon hide gloves."

Just as Longbottom skulked off to the cupboard to start collecting his cleaning supplies there was a neat little rap on the door.

"In." Snape ordered as he surveyed the possible damage to the desk.

The door opened and perfectly framed in the curved arch was Dolores Umbridge. She was stood with a perfect smile on her face and a clipboard.

"Hem hem…Professor Snape, may I have a word?" she chirped.

"Professor Umbridge, our agreed time for you to be in my classroom has passed and you are disturbing my lesson so if you would kindly wait until the class is over I will be…'happy'…to talk to you." he muttered as he used his wand to lessen the damage on the desk.

The class looked from Umbridge to Snape and waited with a tenseness that was extremely tangible.

"No. Now." she ordered softly and tapped her clipboard.

Snape felt a surge of anger rush through him.

"Class, carry on with your work while I deal with 'this'." he said pointedly, careful not to lose face in front of the students.

He walked out of the classroom and into the corridor where Dolores had stepped out and saw that Lily was stood there looking awkward and curious as to why she had chosen to disturb the pair of them.

"What is this?" he asked her, looking from Lily to Umbridge.

Dolores' smile was now almost frozen.

"It is my duty as high inquisitor to the Ministry and as senior undersecretary to the Minister, Pius Thicknesse to hereby dismiss you from your positions here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"What?!" Snape snarled. "Why!?"

"Sev…"

"Sufficient evidence and the testimony of a trustworthy witness was secured in which both of you were found to be behaving in a manner unbecoming of staff members here. Furthermore…" she began, sliding a sheaf of parchment delicately from the mother of pearl clipboard. "You have desecrated school property and acted with grand indecency within student accessible areas."

Snape tried to push what this senile old hag was saying through his head and he looked to Lily whose cheeks were bright red.

"Who is this 'trustworthy' witness?" he snapped. "Come on! If I'm getting sacked I want to know who testified against me!"

"A member of the inquisitorial squad who we have assured there will be no…repercussions."

Snape looked around and saw several faces at the dungeon doors, one of them was grinning, looking extremely proud of herself.

"Pansy Parkinson?!" he practically shrieked. "You mean the same Pansy Parkinson who I gave detention to for calling a teacher a 'Mudblood'?!"

"You can't sack us without hard evidence." Lily began. "Testimony of a possibly biased student is inadmissible."

"Do you confirm you are in an intimate relationship?" she asked eloquently.

Snape looked to Lily; Lily looked to him with a pleading look in her eyes. He could feel the burning stares of students behind him as a sudden hush descended on the class.

He saw the quiet victory in Umbridge's eyes.

"Yes. Yes we are." he confirmed, scarlet staining his pale cheeks.

"Then under Education Decree twenty-four…signed this morning by the Minister himself…" she began, opening the folded document snapped to her clipboard.

"Staff Members are not permitted to be in relationships with other staff members."

Snape looked to Lily who was preparing to say something that he knew she would regret.

"Regardless of that decree, the fact of the matter is…" she began, heaving her chest with delight at her next planned phrase. "…You were heard. FORNICATING. In the potions closet on the 25th of December of last year, which I need not tell you is wholly inappropriate. I repeat, you are hereby dismissed from your positions."

The buzz of the students behind him was enough to ensure that this would be all over the school by the start of period 6.

Professor Snape was caught having sex with Professor Evans in the potions closet on Christmas day, and now they're both sacked.

"Now, if I were you, I'd go to my rooms. Pack up and get together my bits and pieces because you must be gone from this school by 6pm this evening." she finished with a girlish titter.

Snape looked to Lily whose eyes were filling rapidly with tears.

"Very well…" Snape said coldly, looking Umbridge dangerously in the eye.

There was more gasps and flurried chatter from the students as he accepted his dismissal.

"Lily, let's go."

And Snape held out his hand to Lily, his girlfriend.

Lily looked at him with sadness, but happiness that for the first time he had acknowledged their relationship within the school.

"THAT WILL NOT BE NECESSARY."

Snape looked rapidly to the stairs and saw Dumbledore storming down them, his robes billowing and his face set with anger.

"I'm sorry, headmaster?" began Umbridge, her smile gone.

"You do not have the authority to evict my staff, I told you this before. Have you forgotten?" he asked. "Severus, Lily, please go and wait in my office."

"No." Snape confirmed. "Headmaster…" he began, looking to Lily who gave him a nod of confirmation. "…We want to go."

"Severus, please." he said, his eyes creasing with enthusiasm.

"Hogwarts is no longer my home." he began quietly. "I do not want to hide anymore. I'm not a criminal…I just happen to love someone."

He closed his hand around Lily's firmly.

"I will be packed and leaving presently. You will know where to find me, Headmaster."

And with that he led Lily out of his dungeon, away from the scandalized students and proud Umbridge and towards their chambers that would very soon no longer be theirs.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Snape watched as the raindrops on the single glazed windows raced each other down the window pane outside blurring the scene outside.

Muggles raced to-and-fro in the rain splashed streets of Spinners end. They were hurrying out of the sudden downpour and towards the factories.

It must have been 8am.

Parents were dragging their children to school, avoiding puddles and telling them to hurry. Workers were marching to work with their old fashioned tin lunchboxes and their collars pulled up against the cold February rain. Women were dashing to the corner shop in their overcoats, their hair tied up in makeshift buns as they made the dash for bread they had forgotten.

In those women he saw his mother. Running out of the house to get his father's breakfast before he woke from the Indian corner shop and hoping he wasn't awake by the time she got back.

He had seen her dash back into the house, throwing her overcoat onto the banister and run through the kitchen hissing at him to help her before 'he' woke up.

He remembered rapidly buttering bread and watching his mother cut up chunks of stale cheese, scraping off the mould that fell like dust from the dark yellowing block and his mother hastily putting it in the tin box for his father.

He would come down the stairs on the threadbare carpet with his steel toe capped boots and grab the lunchbox without so much as a grunt before heading off in his flat cap to the factories.

His mother would look to Snape briefly before starting to do the housework.

Sometimes, she would do it by magic, on other days like a muggle. It was almost as if she had forgotten she could do magic when he wasn't in the house.

Sighing, he turned away from the window where Lily was buttoning up her green muggle coat.

"The ministry have called, they need me in." she said quietly.

Even the ever present bounce of joy that lived in her voice was dulled now. As if the peeling wall paper, persistent mould and aged stained curtains had covered her with their drabness.

Snape nodded and sat back down.

"I suppose I shall sit here then."

"Why don't you go for a walk?"

Snape almost laughed at the suggestion. He had no desire to mix amongst the muggles. He lived like one now, he had no desire to act like one.

Sighing, she took a handful of floo powder and threw it into the green fire before looking at him again.

"I love you."

Snape nodded.

"-Love you."

Lily sighed and stepped into the flames before muttering.

"Ministry."

Snape watched the fire die down instantly and looked back to the room around him.

It was like coming home after the summer term again.

To despair, and poverty.

The night he and Lily had left, they had packed amidst protestations at their decision to leave from McGonagall and Dumbledore who insisted they stay to fight the decision.

Snape and Lily both knew what staying would entail.

What were childish rumours before were now actual fact and solid truth and the students would use it to their advantage.

They would be squatters. No job, no wages. Living on food that was donated by the school and beds that belonged to the school.

Constantly under the oppressive gaze of that evil woman.

Pansy Parkinson strutting around as if she owned the place.

Snape closed his case with a snap and turned to Dumbledore with a hardness in his voice that he felt misplaced.

"Thank you for your kindness, headmaster. But this is no longer your school."

With that, the pair walked into the fire that glowed brilliantly green and arrived back at Spinner's end.

The contrast was almost bitingly sharp.

The warm, safe, familiar office had changed to the dank, damp coldness of Spinners end and he was a boy again.

Lily had dropped her case and rubbed her hands that felt dirty and started to light the lamps and fires around the house to give the house life.

It was impossible. It had been dead since he had lived there.

That night, Lily prepared a good meal of Spaghetti Bolognese. Snape couldn't eat it, instead he just toyed with the spaghetti as she spoke assurances that they would cope with this.

"I'm still an Auror." she began brightly. "She can't sack me for turning up for work at the Ministry. Besides, the teaching position was a favour for Albus. Now I can focus on actually doing some dark detection. My salary will more than keep us."

But she did not understand.

Snape had taught potions for over ten years. And although he may not have liked his students, it was his job. That was his classroom. Those were his chambers and that was his life.

Now he was an unemployed, disgraced ex-teacher.

No longer independent. No longer respectable. And no longer safe at Hogwarts.

The daily routine was drab and lifeless.

The pair of them would wake early, Lily would have her shower and get ready for work before grabbing some breakfast and heading to the Auror office where Mad Eye had her mostly doing paperwork to keep her safe.

Snape would spend the days trying to improve the property somewhat but always found himself sitting in his armchair waiting for the fires to turn green again.

Occasionally, in the evenings, they would have guests.

Dumbledore visited frequently at first. Giving news of the school to them. Lily listened intently whilst providing tea and scones she had found time to make from scratch. Snape sat in his armchair, barely muttering a word, too embraced by the melancholy he had taken to again so easily after over a year of joy.

Lily received an owl from Sirius who had heard what had happened and wanted to come around to spend an evening ranting. He promised to leave Potter at home.

Lily politely declined his request after seeing Snape's face turn sour at the mention of it.

The ennui of each day was enough to ignore his own birthday, insisting on no celebrations and greeted Lily's with a bloom of roses.

Bought, not magicked.

He knew he was pushing Lily away. But he did not want to infect her with this terrible feeling of nothingness that swelled in him like a dead body in water. He could not infect her with this plague of helplessness.

Yet it tainted her.

Some mornings, before work, he could hear her crying in the bathroom and saw her leave the bathroom with raw looking eyes and weak smile that hid sorrow.

He was a toxin to her.

He had cast made her a social pariah with himself and did not deserve her.

Yesterday, McGonagall had turned up and explained with swollen eyes that Dumbledore had almost been arrested when Dolores Umbridge found that the students had been secretly holding meetings in a secret part of the school to learn 'forbidden' spells. These students had called themselves Dumbledore's Army and had amongst their number: Cedric Diggory, Ginevra Weasley, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Michael Corner, Lavender Brown, Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom.

Dumbledore had taken all of the blame when a friend of one of the number had 'blabbed' and gotten cursed in the process of naming the location of their meetings.

Dumbledore had sent her a phoenix patronus a few hours later explaining he was: 'on the lam' in a very cheerful voice.

McGonagall had cried a little and explained that she felt that Hogwarts was dying as Dolores Umbridge was named new headmistress and had installed several of her ministry co-workers as teachers who were now monitoring the school as if it were Azkaban.

That same evening, Tonks had written in a similar cheery tone that Lupin had woken, weakened, near exhausted after his lengthy illness but without long term damage and planned to get back to work as soon as he could, if only to annoy Umbridge.

Lily had smiled at this and handed the letter to Snape who read it and nodded quietly before returning to his book.

Snape couldn't remember what it felt like to sleep in her arms, she always slept before him these days. Tired by work, and stress at home, she simply fell straight to sleep the second she hit the lumpy mattress. He cuddled up to her when she had fallen asleep, to smell the sweetness in her hair that preserved the memory of better times.

Two months like this had passed, and they were still existing like this.

Kisses on the temple and fleeting touches on her hand.

Was he losing her?

Was she pulling away from him?

Turning back to the empty house, he resigned himself to a 'to do list' he had been forming since he had woken.

Clean the mould off the bathroom tiles by magic.

Check Prophet for jobs.

Ignore what Rita Skeeter had written (she had had a veritable field-day with the scandals at Hogwarts)

Finish book.

It would take him to when Lily got home. Just being in her company, hearing her news of the day made him feel a bit more alive, even if he could not bring himself to speak to her about much.

Everything he had to say to her was full of misery and woe, and she did not deserve it.

He was just about to set off upstairs to tackle the problem in the bathroom when he heard the fires flare up.

Clutching his wand he wandered back in and saw Lily stood there, brushing ash off of her clothes.

"…Early." he muttered.

"Someone's cast a bad charm at the Auror's office. It's raining snails. Maintenance want the office clear for the day so they can sort it. Looks like I've brought my work home with me." she half smiled, indicating a large stack of folders under her arm.

Snape was glad to see her, but kept a solemn face.

"Good to have you home." he nodded and went upstairs to tackle the mould.

It took a lot less time than he expected as he scoured it away and forced the tiles to return to their usual faded white-grey. He knew there was probably a magical remedy for this sort of persistent problem that seemed to be rife in this damp corner of England but had not set foot in Diagon Alley for some time and did not fancy doing so.

Heading downstairs, he found Lily at the dining table scribbling on some parchment as she hovered a file in front of her with her wand.

"Bathroom is sorted." he announced plainly before looking around in a lost sort of way.

"Good." she smiled with a false brightness she reserved for him these days, as a way to try and top up his saddened state.

"You know." he began slowly. "It is strange seeing you do magic, here."

She looked to him quizzically.

"My mother, she was never permitted to do magic while my father was around…" he said slowly, running his finger tips across the top of a tattered, mismatched chair. "He said it was unnatural filth and often threatened to hit her…or me, for doing it. To see you do it, here…in perhaps one of the most unmagickal places in the country, it is odd."

"Do you want me to stop?" she asked, putting her quill down.

"No. Never."

Lily stood up and walked over to him. Her eyes locked on his.

"When did you last see them?" she asked.

"My parents?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I haven't been to their stones for years." he admitted carelessly.

"Perhaps it's time?" she suggested.

"Why?" he asked, slightly taken aback at this shock proposal.

"Times have changed, Sev. You're with me now. And you have a new life. Perhaps it's time to make peace with the past to move on to the future?"

Snape looked to her, her hand was on his shoulder and her eyes were creased into soft sympathy. The faint wrinkles that were creeping into her face seemed more pronounced today, beautiful…but present.

He did not feel deserving of her kindness, similarly when his parents died, he felt similarly undeserving to those who had gathered to express condolences that were as empty as the house he now owned, yet rattled around in.

"Make my peace…?" he asked.

"Just go there. Stand there. Say nothing, say everything. Yell at them if you have to. But you can't keep their ghosts here." she said softly. "There just isn't room."

Snape half smiled at that. Lily always had a way of making light of even the darkest of situations.

"I see what you mean." he said weakly, feeling better for smiling at her.

Lily magicked a bouquet of white funeral lilies and handed them to him.

"Go on. It's not raining, your muggle coat is on the banister."

Snape nodded and made his way to the hallway.

He pulled on a second hand black coat Lily had bought for him and walked out into the slightly sun-lit street, heading towards the old cemetery on the hill next to the crumbling church.

Lily was right. If he wanted to move forwards, he had to stop looking back.

Lily had just sat down to continue her work when there was knocking at the door.

Lily sighed and got back up, wrapping her brown cardigan around her in an effort to keep warm.

He'd probably forgotten his door key, after all, he could not use his wand to open the lock could he?

Opening the door she smiled, picking up the set of keys that hung on the makeshift key rack by the mirror in the hall.

"Typical Sly-"

It was not Severus.

"Hello, my pretty."

Lily back away swiftly and whipped out her wand at once.

Lily had lived with a werewolf long enough to recognize one when she saw one and this man was most definitely a werewolf in human form.

The stench of earth and blood, of rotting flesh that she knew was coming from under his fingernails and between his teeth.

"Don't be like that treacle." he grinned, his teeth heavily stained and chipped. "I only want a chat."

Lily hesitated before casting a hex at the mirror beside him which shattered and showered him in shards of glass.

The werewolf watched as she dashed to the living room before giving chase with an excited growl.

Lily sent hex after hex at the man who discarded them with waves of his wand as if he was popping bubbles blown by a child.

The man threw over the couch as if it were made of matchsticks and swung the armchair into the fireplace in an effort to get to her.

She cast impedimenta at him before making a run for the back door. He grabbed her leg in his rough hand and brought her to the floor.

Lily's fall was cushioned by the table cloth she had grabbed at to save herself, she looked quickly back and sent a conjunctivitis curse behind her at him that hit him square in the eye.

The man roared in pain before letting go of her leg to grab at his eye.

Lily made another run for the door but the man had pointed his wand at the door locking it shut, as she made to run to the other, he locked that too and for good measure.

Lily cast a bombardment of jinxes at him to hold him back.

Everything she could think of, mixing curses and hexes but he was too fast, his werewolf blood working in his favour, dodging and simply shrugging off the weaker curses with his toughened skin as he laughed before casting once, and then twice.

Her wand flew out of her hand and into his.

Lily stared at her hand, unable to believe someone had bested her in a duel.

Thinking fast, she grabbed the nearest thing she had to hand, a ceramic fruit bowl.

Throwing it at him he shouldered it and shouted:

"Incarcerous."

Rough rope binds flew and wrapped around her making her fall backwards onto the piles of paper that had flown from the desk she had been studying at.

"What the hell do you want?!" she shrieked, infuriated at this intrusion and fearful that he had come for Severus.

""You're gonna have to come with me…We need a chat with you, you filthy Mudblood."

The name stung like acid yet seemed to hurt less coming from his foul mouth.

"Fuck you."

"You'd best mind that mouth or them lovely…" he began, leaning forwards and stroking her mane of dishevelled red hair. "…locks of yours will stuck in my teeth tonight. Full moon…You'll make a tasty treat."

Shit, it was the fifteenth. Full Moon.

"…Where are we going?" she asked, putting her Auror training to good use, trying to plan with as much information as she could get.

"Bellatrix will be looking forwards to a piece of you. Not before I've had my fun with you in the cellar…" he grinned, his horrid breath turning her stomach.

"How did you find us?" she said bitterly. "This place is unplottable. Undetectable. Who blabbed?"

The man did not answer this time and instead crept closer.

Lily looked around as the man got closer to her, his hand outstretched again.

Lily quickly bit her lip hard and spat the blood on the floor.

The man laughed again at this pathetic attempt to repel him.

He dipped his thumb in the blood and sucked on it, savouring the taste.

Lily turned her head away and gave a dry heave.

Grabbing her by the hair roughly, the pair disapparated.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Snape wasn't sure what he had expected when he had stood face to face with the weather worn stones of his parents. He had tried for fifteen minutes to remember the location of their graves and only remembered when he recognized the stump of a lightening struck tree that had been newly struck a week before his mothers death.

Three rows up, third from the left next to the bramble bush.

He had found them, just barely visible under a thicket of weeds. He instinctively reached for his wand but found that in the presence of his father's bones he could not perform a single spell.

In anger focused on his father's constant presence even now, he snatched at the stinging nettles, thistles and doc leaves to reveal their mossy slabs of granite.

Hers seemed to be leaning towards his; even now in death she desperately yielded to him for love that he was still incapable of giving.

Snape sighed and sat back, the wetness of the grass soaking into his trousers.

"Well…" he began softly. "Here I am."

He had not expected them to talk back, certainly not. But he did not expect the silence either.

The uncomfortable silence was not punctuated by bird song, wind or even the distance laughs of children from the playground of the primary school not too far away.

Snape pulled a few clovers from around his mothers simply epitaph.

"Eileen Snape. Wife and Mother."

"I'm a teacher." he began, and then closed his eyes bitterly.

I _was _a teacher.

"…I was a teacher." he began. "There…were problems at the school. I…"

May as well let it all out quickly…

"I fell in love with a muggle-born and she's an Auror. We were caught doing…something we shouldn't have in the school and we were dismissed." he muttered. "Professor Dumbledore-"

He couldn't carry on without explaining a great deal about what was going on in general.

He sighed.

"Look…" he began, oddly informal considering he was speaking to pure stone. "I'm happy." He rubbed his eyes. "I know I don't look, or sound happy. But I am. I love her. I really do. I just need to sort my life out a bit. But I can't do it when every time I turn to her…I see you mum. I see you getting oppressed again because you-" he pointed at his fathers stone, suddenly angry. "-you wouldn't let her use magic in the house and Lily, I see her hesitate and it's like seeing you again, Mother. It's like seeing you. Seeing her afraid of my mood, hesitating before she speaks, crying in the bathroom. I'm not going to let her live in your shadows. I love her too much for that."

Snape found himself shaking with emotion that was now welling up inside him.

"You are in my past…and you must stay there or you will crush my present."

Snape waited, breathing deeply. A strange lump in his throat and a pressure in his chest that he was certain was a lot of old hate and sadness that had just been vented after such a long stagnation.

He looked up at the sky and saw that the sky was looking rather grey again.

"I'd better go." he began. "It's going to rain…And I'm going to apologise for my sour behaviour."

He turned his back on the stones.

"See you." he nodded formally and walked down the hill.

Walking mechanically away he did not look back. He was not able to look back. He had no desire to return there again and felt that he had done more than enough to sort out the stagnant feeling surrounding his parent's deaths.

As the sun shone brightly, he was considering what he would make for dinner and then was surprised by the fact he was actually going to consider cooking for Lily.

He had only ever seen muggle cooking as his mother had always done things the muggle way. He knew she peeled potatoes using a small knife and that she put things from bottles into the potatoes that made them taste better, but at that point they were usually mashed up.

Pausing at the cemetery gate he thought that he would perhaps have to visit the corner shop and get some food as he had no idea what was actually residing in the damp afflicted cupboards at home.

Lily had given him some muggle money and a brief master class in case he ever needed to get something while she was out but he barely remembered what she had said and reaching into his pocket to retrieve the coin purse he saw it not bustling with galleons, sickles and knuts but other shaped and sized coins that looked as alien as they had when they rarely graced his fathers hands.

Walking to the corner shop he had gone in as a child with his mother who had often counted out the smaller, dirty bronze coins and paid for a tin of food that often tasted disgusting even after she had tried to cook it into something delicious.

He knew he wanted potatoes and meat and was going to try and fashion something like a Sheppard's pie but had no idea how to make it.

Perhaps Lily would see what he was trying to do and come and help him.

Perhaps they could cook together.

Perhaps they would bond.

Perhaps things would seem better.

Walking down the still glistening streets he came to the corner shop on the edge of Sidcup road just off Spinner's end and pressed the door open.

The small tinkle of a bell announced his entrance as the owner listened to a radio station in which the singer sung happily in Hindi. He looked up from his tabloid paper with its still images and wished him a chipper sounding 'Good morning.' before returning to his reading.

Snape nodded stiffly and browsed the shelves that were stacked neatly with tins, packets, and tubs.

Nothing here was fresh. Even the bread was in bags.

Looking around for the fresh vegetables, he saw a couple of tired looking green plastic boxes that held a few bags of dirty potatoes and a few bags of other vegetables.

They didn't look remotely appetizing, but he was sure he could siphon off the dirty and try and cook them.

Picking up a bag of potatoes and some carrots, he browsed the rest of the shop. Looking at a 'tin' of peas, he added them to his armful of goods and looked for some meat. There was tinned meat, lots of tinned meat. There were refrigerated packets of meat that lay in processed slices, glistening with gelatine, but no fresh steaks, or minced beef.

He went towards a few white boxes that hummed with electricity and saw that they were 'refrigerators'-something Lily had informed him about just last week that kept the food cold until it was ready to be eaten.

Inside were slabs and dollops of meat in packaging.

Snape hastily slid open the glass door and reached in to pick up the meat but it was solid and very cold.

Would this need to thaw before he could cook it?

Not a problem. When he got back in he could simply thaw the meat by magic and then start the process of…what happened next?

He would have to ask Lily.

He was starting to feel this was woeful to even attempt this but he had to show Lily he could at least try.

Walking with the cold meat balanced on top of his other purchases he dumped them onto the counter, just a few inches short of the owner's newspaper.

The owner smiled, passed the items past a small black box that beeped and registered the price on an electronic display rapidly, placing them into a carrier before announcing the price.

"£10.38 please, my friend!"

Snape had no idea what he had asked him for but instead opened his hand and placed some money uncertainly onto the newspaper.

The man's smile faltered and he looked to Snape quizzically.

"You foreign?" he asked.

Snape nodded quickly, his tongue moving almost uncomfortably in his mouth as it fought to lie.

"No problem." he began to count the coins out rapidly. "You need to be careful though." he said as he handed Snape back the change. "Not everyone as honest as me."

Snape nodded again.

"Have a good day." the owner smiled at him, handing him his carrier of shopping.

As Snape made to take it, he saw that the paper the man had been reading had a huge headline of murder.

Snape moved closer to look at it.

The owner nodded sympathetically.

"Woman in London found dead in her flat. Lot of deaths recently…"

"What was her name?" Snape asked, his voice betraying the lie he had told only moments ago.

"Amelia Bones says here."

"Can I have a copy of that paper?"

"Certainly." he passed the newspaper through the bleeping box again and handed it to him.

"40p please."

Snape looked awkwardly at the money in his hand.

"The hexagonal silver ones. Two of them."

Snape offered his hand to the man who took them and nodded.

"You'll get the hang of it." grinned the man.

Snape did not return the smile and instead walked hastily back to the house.

Amelia Bones was the head of Magical Law Enforcement and a talented witch, if she was dead…Voldemort was becoming more and more dangerous and he had to warn Lily.

Breaking into a swift jog he made his way back to the familiar narrow door with its peeling paint and surreptitiously tapped the lock with his wand…only to find that it wasn't actually locked, or even closed.

Opening the door slowly with his free hand, he abruptly dumped the shopping and flung out his wand.

"Lily?!"

Following his wand into the room he saw utter carnage.

The furniture was upended, the paperwork Lily had been working on scattered about, the fireplace happily eating up a chair…and blood.

Snape looked around wildly and cast a quick spell.

The silence that followed revealed that it was empty,

Lily had gone, and judging by the hex damage and mess, not willingly.

Snape thought wildly what to do, who to turn to, where to go.

Dumbledore missing, the teachers at the school at the mercy of Dolores Umbridge…

Looking around for clues, anything that he could use to dowse her location.

It was unlikely her captor had left them a nice little map to follow of been kind enough to leave a marker for their destination.

Snape fell to his knees, tears rolling down his cheeks effortlessly as the impending panic froze into pure fear. Lily had gone. And he had no idea who had taken her, or where she was now.

At the mercy of death eaters?

Or at the mercy of Voldemort himself?

Cold, untameable fear was pouring through his veins like liquid ice. A dementor at his shoulder, caressing his back and sucking his soul…

Dementors…

Azkaban…

A flash of Sirius Black cursing Bellatrix at Azkaban exploded into his minds eye.

Of course…Black and Potter. They were the only members of the Order he could call upon.

Getting up and rubbing the tears from his cheeks he pointed his wand at the burning chair and watched as it vanished. He grabbed a handful of floo powder and threw it into the flames that started burning immediately in familiar emerald green.

Kneeling down in front of the grate he pushed his head into the heatless flames and immediately, the spinning sensation had started.

The fire knew where he needed to go and soon he was staring into the garish living room of James Potter.

"Just say…if she was younger, would y-Blimey! Snape!"

Snape was looking up at Sirius Black who had been sat on the armchair nearest the fire, absorbed in conversation with Potter who was lazing around on his couch, toying with a beaters bat.

"I need your help. Come to Spinners End at once!"

"Wait, wait, wait…" replied Potter. "We're busy men. We can't just prance off anywhere we're summoned!"

"Lily's missing." Snape retorted.

"Get your ugly head out of the fire then, chop chop!"

Snape pulled his head back out instantly and sat back, shaking the feeling of fuzziness out of it as seconds later James Potter clattered out of the fireplace followed by Sirius Black.

Sirius took a look around and whipped out his wand immediately.

"What happened?" he asked as Potter gave a less than subtle look of disgust to the place.

"I went out for a while, Lily was working from home…and when I came back this place was in disarray and Lily was missing."

Sirius nodded and looked around. Potter followed suit and looked around the hall way.

"…Did she come in from shopping?"

Snape looked waspishly around and saw the scattered potatoes and thawing steak.

"No…I…Never mind that!"

Potter shrugged and carried on looking around.

"This where you lived between terms?" he asked.

"Yes." Snape snapped. "What of it."

Potter gave a sheepish shrug.

"Didn't realize you guys were…like…actually poor."

Sirius made a scandalized noise at Potter and nodded him to come into the living room where he was studying the marks on the upturned sofa.

"…Werewolf did this." he said incoherently.

"But there is no moon." Snape remarked.

"No…But they leave marks." Sirius nodded. "When Lupin was in the midst of his transformations, he'd knock over furniture and leave marks like this in the shrieking shack and that was when he was in human form!"

"Greyback. He escaped Azkaban with the Lestrange's." Potter replied. "I saw it in the Prophet."

Snape felt faint.

There was a full moon that night too.

"He'll rip her apart…" he whispered, wringing his cold hands.

Sirius was on the floor now, and had found the blood on the papers.

"Blood here." muttered Black to Potter who was now staring at the pictures on the mantelpiece.

"That your mum?"

"Is this necessary questioning, in the saving of my girlfriend?!" snapped Snape.

"Sorry…" Potter mumbled and started to study the blood as well.

"…Weird. If she was badly injured there would be more. If he had dragged her, it would have followed. If he had carried her, it would have dripped. And…" Sirius bent in close and dipped his wand tip into it. "…It's got saliva in it…"

Potter made a disgusted face.

"You're getting a bit close for comfort there mate. I know its Evans, but still."

"How do you know all of this?" asked Snape incredulously.

"Meh, I'm an animagus dog. My sense of spell is pretty good."

Snape inclined his head.

"It's almost as if…" Sirius began, looking at the paper.

Lifting the paper up, Black's face broke into a smile.

"Lily Evans was always smart…She's left us a breadcrumb trail…"

"Trail?" asked Snape nervously.

He handed Snape the bloodied parchment.

Snape tore his eyes from the blood to the black letters headlining it.

"MALFOY, LUCIUS."

Snape caught on at once.

"She's at Malfoy manor…"


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

Lily was sat on a black leather wing back chair in front of the large stone fireplace of Malfoy manor.

The fires did not burn leaving a distinctly cold feel to the grey and green tone drawing room.

Despite her wrists not being bound it was not magic that held her there but the werewolf pacing next to the door.

The wild haired women reclining on the couch.

The couple at the fireplace spoke quietly, looking at her, and then speaking in more hurried tones.

Lily was afraid, but she was certainly not about to show it.

She was a Gryffindor and surrounded by Slytherin's, their artefacts and their ways. But she knew that one Slytherin would be on his way soon to find her.

Looking as bored as she could she gazed idly around as the woman on the couch gave her looks of deep contempt.

"Why must she have been brought here?" she began coldly. "The stench of her, she stinks of dirty blood."

"Quiet, Bella." began the man with long blonde hair, Lucius Malfoy. "Do not complicate matters."

"Complicate matters?" The woman got up hotly and pointed to where Lily sat.

"You bring a Mudblood into this house and accuse me of complicating matters?! What do you think the dark lord wants with scum of this kind?"

Lily looked to Lucius who had bitten his lip to stop a retort.

"It is not her we need. It is him."

Bellatrix scoffed, threw her arms out and spun in a circle, looking up at the ceiling.

"Why do we need HIM? He's served his purpose!"

"Not quite." Lucius said in a quelling manner. "Sit down and save your strength."

"I have strength enough to battle you and the whole forsaken Order." she hissed.

The woman looked to her son and nodded him over to her as her husband walked to Lily.

"Do you know why you are here?" he asked with perfectly clipped tones.

"Birthday party?" she asked sardonically.

Lucius wrinkled his nose in a sneer.

"Oh no…that was a few months ago, remember?"

Lily recalled seeing that creature rise from that cauldron. Lord Voldemort.

"Yes. Your beloved helped us get our master back. I imagine that it was quite a blow to realize that…?"

"He recovered as soon as he knew he was going to help finish you off. You and your beloved 'master'." Lily finished, imitating Bellatrix.

Bellatrix's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Let me practice on her. What good is she alive? She can't tell us anything."

"I want him to hear her suffer." Lucius said, looking down at Lily. "Besides, I have to feed the dog later…"

He nodded to where Greyback was pacing still, although stopped at being addressed as the dog.

"I AM NOT A DOG!" Snarled Greyback.

"Temper, temper." Narcissa began in a mock soothing voice. "Full moon makes you cranky."

Lily shrugged, although inside, her stomach was knotting.

"I doubt I'll be here to enjoy a moonlight supper with you Fenrir, Sorry." Lily replied quietly.

"She has fire…" Bellatrix grinned, showing Azkaban blackened teeth. "Must be the Auror in her."

"Bellatrix has a history of taking down Aurors." smirked Lucius.

"I'm sorry to hear that she's going into retirement." Lily replied evenly. "Because she won't be adding me to her collection."

Bellatrix's smiled faded as she suddenly lunged at Lily, her face mere inches from her own.

Lily drew back as much as she could, unnerved.

"What's-a-matter, dearie?" Bellatrix asked her black eyes wide with menace. "You're not afraid. Dear Sevvy Wevvy is coming to the wescue!"

Lily turned her head away as Bellatrix let out a shriek of triumph and pulled back.

"Oh yes, I will have fun breaking her!"

"Your beloved was foolish enough to still be connected to the floo network at that rat hovel of a home he shares with you. We found you quite easily. A few reconnaissance missions found you quite easily. You never noticed."

Lily wondered how many times a strangers face had been peeping out at them from the fireplace.

"All Fenrir needed to do was to wait for you to say the name of the place and its address, and he had you."

"When would we have-?"

Lily remembered a few weeks ago when she had been reading the address aloud whilst writing it on some parchment for Sirius.

"You can't be too careful these days…" Lucius smirked. "Walls, and fireplaces…so it seems, have ears."

Lily looked outside. The morning sun had gone and was being slowly replaced by the late afternoon haze. A squirm of worry in the pit of her stomach was wondering if Severus would be able to tell where she had been taken, and if he could even hope to win.

"This HAS to be the place." Potter muttered, staring up at the ornate gates, the high hedges and the albino peacocks.

"No doubt. I was invited here during the summer holidays one year." Snape replied. "This is the place."

"You came and visited Malfoy?" sneered Potter.

"Yes, and aren't you bloody glad I did." Snape retorted angrily.

"Yes…" Potter conceded. "Point is, how are we getting in?"

Sirius had been walking past the gate several times and was using his wand to trace things on the air.

"Still nothing from Dumbledore?" Potter asked Sirius.

"Nope. MIA." he responded.

"So…what IS the plan?" asked Snape.

"Plan?" Sirius asked as if he had suggested something ludicrous.

"You know, plan of action?" Snape continued.

"To hell with plans. Plans are for Ravenclaws."

And with that Sirius pointed his wand at the gate which abruptly exploded.

Sirius looked mildly pleased with the effect despite the gates still weakly trying to form a mouth and speak. Sirius finished it off with another well aimed bombardment jinx before strolling through the bricks and twisted metal down the long driveway into the stately mansion.

Snape had to admit, that was some pretty volatile magic, but he was surprised that the gate was not so well protected.

"I was expecting better protection!" he called after Sirius who was charging along, his wand out ready.

"Me too." Potter agreed. "That was too easy Padfoot."

"It's a warm up then, right?" he beamed and marched ahead smoothly.

Almost immediately, the secondary security system came in to affect. A shimmering wall stood ahead of them.

Sirius investigated it for a time and sent a bombardment hex at it.

It failed to move.

Sirius fired hexes, jinxes and spells indiscriminately at the wall which barely shifted in its strange presence.

"I'm out of ideas, Prongs?" Black asked, stepping back from the wall.

Potter bent down, picked up a piece of gravel and threw it into the wall. It immediately passed through and turned to dust on the other side.

"Bloody Nora." he muttered as Snape drew back.

"If you run through that…you will die. _Protego Horribilis_." Snape scowled.

"What does that mean?" asked Potter.

"It's a defensive charm designed to impede anyone, by any means necessary." Snape responded. He had seen the charm in action during an advanced Charms lecture.

"What do we do?" asked Potter.

"Nothing. Looks like we have an escort." Sirius sighed and held up his wand defensively as up ahead two death eaters were walking towards the wall.

The death eaters cast an enchantment and walked through the wall as if it were fog before pointing their wands at Sirius, Potter and Snape. They were casting a shield charm by the looks of the disturbances of the air around them.

"Drop 'em. You'd be dead before you cast." growled the one with pockmarked skin.

Black seemed to be having a conflict of interests. He relinquished, then tightened, then relinquished his hold on his wand before swearing and dropping it,

Potter followed suit looking suitably defeated as Snape threw his own on the gravel.

The death eater with blonde hair picked up the wands and smirked.

"You lot are hardly worth two of us. I told you I should have stayed behind." chuckled the pockmarked wizard before pocketing their wands. "Follow me."

Snape felt his wrists become bound by enchanted, rough rope as he was pulled forwards by magic.

Walking along side Sirius and Potter he was hoping that at least one of them had a good idea because as far as he could tell they were doomed.

Walking up the extensive drive he watched as two more death eaters opened a set of black varnished doors with silver serpentine knockers.

Walking through the marble tiled foyer of the mansion he saw a grand sweeping staircase in polished marble with black twisted handrails.

Every where his eyes rested were dark artefacts. Twisted limbs in glass cases, cursed objects, things that belonged in knock turn alley.

Never before had he felt so ashamed to have been associated with Lucius at some point.

As they were marched into the main drawing room where Snape had once spent an uncomfortable afternoon answering questions of his parentage to Abraxas Malfoy as they sipped elderflower tea and ate dragon tartar.

Now Lucius Malfoy, the blonde haired boy he knew in his youth took up the throne besides the fire as his wife stood behind with a glass of wine clutched in her hand.

On the couch facing the fire lay Bellatrix, her silver hand holding her curved wand, tracing her tongue over the tip languidly.

It turned his stomach.

"Guests." barked the death eater.

At once Lucius stood up. He looked well, though possibly a little grey from lack of sunlight.

"Aha. Of course, who else would I expect? Severus." he began looking him up and down. "Lucius." Snape retorted.

"Though of course, I did not expect Sirius Black, nor the famous Puddlemere Potter."

Potter gave a scoff.

"Why don't you cut your hair, Malfoy? You look like a girl." he retorted.

"Since when have you and 'The Marauders' been friendly?" Lucius asked, taking his wand and tracing it up and down Sirius, then Potter, as though trying to detect something.

"Since one of them defaulted to your side and we had a spot." snarled Sirius.

"How is the werewolf?" asked Bellatrix, looking over the side of the couch at them, malice in her black eyes.

"Recovered." Snape lied indifferently. "Whatever you did to him was laughably pathetic. I dare say our first years could have cured him."

Bellatrix rolled her eyes and stood up rapidly.

"I expect this foolhardy crusade was to save your precious 'Lily'…" she mocked in a sickly voice.

Snape's eyes flashed at the sound of her name.

Lucius finished his check of the captives and looked to Sirius.

"Do you recall…The Prewetts?" he asked with a smirk.

Sirius stiffened and looked straight ahead in a bored manner.

"I do recall. Twins, members of the order of the phoenix. More magic in their little fingers than you have in your whole bloodline."

Lucius continued his polite, practised smile.

"My bloodline?" he began with a smirk. "Surely it is your own you should be concerned of."

"My own bloodline is a proud one." snapped Bellatrix, her cascades of black curls falling wildly over her face. "It was his freakish birth that started the rot of the family tree. Let me prune it now."

Her wand flashed in her hand immediately.

"Down, Bellatrix." began Narcissa. "His time shall come, and our name shall be restored to its former glory."

Bellatrix took little solace in her sisters quelling words but instead looked to Potter.

"You."

She flicked her wand at him and he stood up straight as if struck from behind.

"You are that quidditch boy, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes." he snapped. "Want an autograph?"

Bellatrix brought her wand down so fast that Snape expected Potter to split in two. He pitched forwards onto his knees and collapsed.

Sirius gave him a brief glance and then looked at his cousin.

"Still sore I hexed you?" he mocked, a smile playing in the corner of his mouth.

Bellatrix smiled, her blackened teeth framed by stray curls.

"Your time will come, dear Sirius." she began, tracing a black fingernail down his cheek.

Snape looked to Lucius who was speaking to the werewolf, Greyback. He looked a bit worse for wear. The full moon approached and his hunger was not sated.

"Have you redecorated, Lucius? I find it rather dull in here." Snape began, trying to buy them more time.

"Has living with the Mudblood changed your tastes so drastically?" asked Lucius, turning from the werewolf. "Perhaps you have been so absent from your school that you have forgotten the colour scheme in your own common room?"

"I still don't understand why he is so taken with that Mudblood." began Bellatrix, oddly irked. A twinge of mischief that he had seen in action before came into her eyes.

She stepped up to Snape.

"Does she bubble your cauldron, Sev?"

She made a mock gasp and covered her mouth, looking coyly from side to side before looking at him.

"Does she charm your wand?"

Snape turned aside in disgust.

"Don't act like you don't enjoy her carnal pleasures." Bellatrix hissed acidly, grabbing his face in her bony fingers, her black taloned fingernails scraping his skin. "You disgrace to the name of Wizard, you. Filth and scum. Fornicating with the mudbloods…Salazar Slytherin would feed you to the basilisk for your treason."

Snape jerked his head irritably out of her hand.

"I think he'd be pretty disgusted by you Bellatrix." Snape sneered. "Look at you. Half inbred, insane, mutilated-"

Bellatrix made to hit Snape but Lucius stayed her hand.

"Do not spill his blood. Let the dark lord deal with him, later."

Snape did not show his interest.

"The dark lord is busy, he does not want to be busied with this matter." hissed Bellatrix. "This will be the anti-climax after what he will do tonight."

Lucius eyed Snape and for the first time Snape saw terror in his eyes.

"Speak not in front of these…Take him to the cellar. Let him see what has become of his great love."


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

An increasingly agitated Greyback led him towards the steps. The sweat on his brow was increasing and Snape was sure he could hear Greyback's breathing becoming laboured.

As he shoved Snape down the stairs, Snape hurtled to the bottom against the iron door.

It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would and realized there was probably an imperturbable charm on the gate.

Whatever was behind that door, they didn't want it to make any noise.

As Snape got to his feet, he looked behind at Greyback who pointed his wand at the door.

As soon as the door sprung open. Snape knew why it was imperturbable.

"-ME OUT OF THIS FUCKING DUNGEON OR I SWEAR TO MERLIN I WILL HEX YOU INTO A MILLION PIECES OF SLIME YOU BASTA-Sev!"

Lily made to rush forwards but the chains at her wrists prevented her. Binding her to the slimy flagstone wall behind her, pulling her back roughly.

It inflamed him to see her bound like a common slave.

"Enjoy your time with her." growled Greyback. "It's going to be short."

Snape looked at Greyback who pointed his wand at Snape's hands that were bound behind his back.

Snape found the rope suddenly tightened and found himself flying backwards into the cellar besides Lily.

Slightly dizzy, he got back up and made to run at Greyback but found himself bound, just like Lily. The magical manacles had turned to metal and he was now bound to the back wall.

As the door slammed shut Lily began to jabber rapidly, her pale, dirty face twisted into an apologetic grimace.

"They found us by the floo network; they must have been listening in on us for days, waiting for the right moment. They must have seen you leave and then came for us. I can't believe you came here alone!"

"I didn't." Snape said gravely, twisting his wrists tentatively in the dirty metal manacles. "Black and Potter are still upstairs. Potter is unconscious; Bellatrix hit him with a curse. He's not dead." he quickly countered to her panicked look. "Black, he's being as cavalier about it as always. We tried to rescue you but this place is better protected than Gringotts."

"They took my wand." Lily said fretfully. "I'm an Auror and they took my wand. I feel so ashamed! Mad Eye was always telling me: 'Watch everyone', 'Constant Vigilance!'"

"They took ours too." Snape replied, looking around for a way to remove the binding on his wrists.

"I'm sorry Sev, if I knew who he was I woul-"

"You were very clever to think of a way to let us know where you were…" Snape began conversationally. "Sirius clocked it straight away. Smart man that Sirius."

Lily looked taken aback.

"That's right, I praised him, don't expect it too often. Now let's get out of here. That werewolf is ready to transform."

"Sev, we have no wands." she began again. "How-."

"Use your brain." he began. "You were one of the brightest people in your house and in our year Lily. We're trapped in a magically sealed room with no wands. The room is imperturbable and Sirius and Potter are still upstairs. We're bound and we can't move."

Lily's green eyes focused on his black ones for a few moments and she nodded and started to look around urgently.

"They're going to do something tonight." Snape began. "The dark lord is going to do something tonight. I heard them talking."

"Where are they going?" she asked urgently.

"I don't know." Snape sighed. "Lily…I'm sorry for being so horrid to you earlier. Well, for the last few months. It's inexcusable. I've treated you badly and I have no one to blame but myself. We lost everything…But I never lost you."

Lily paused, with a softened look on her face.

"Sev…There's som-"

There was the sound of a cannon blast; the door coughed some dust before falling forwards with an almighty, final 'CRONG' noise.

Sirius Black was stood there with an unfamiliar, crooked wand pointed where the door was.

"Black?!" Snape asked incredulously, his black curtains hung over his face as he shied from the rubble and dust.

Sirius pointed his wand at the manacles and said clearly:

"Relashio."

The manacles binding their hands to the wall fell away and to the floor before disappearing.

"How…" began Snape, walking forwards and rubbing his wrists. "In the name of Merlin's left testicle did you manage that?"

"I had back up." he stepped aside to reveal Tonks, supporting a sick looking Lupin.

"What in Merlin's name?! Have you SEEN outside? Are you AWARE of that great big white thing hanging in the sky?!" Snape yelled incredulously.

"He insisted!" Tonks bleated.

Lupin raised his head and smiled weakly at Sirius.

"I couldn't miss another night out with the marauders."

Sirius gave Lupin and indulgent smile and nodded firmly.

"We have to get out of here."

"Wait! I am going nowhere with a werewolf about to turn!" Snape began. "No offense, Lupin but you aren't much good to us trying to kill us. Has he even had his potion tonight!?"

Tonks bit her lip guiltily.

"Great." Snape snapped sardonically.

"He'll be alright. We've done it before the tonic was invented, Tonks, where's Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"He's messaging the order." Tonks began and fished in her coat pocket for a moment before throwing Lily and Snape their wands.

"Where are we headed?" asked Lily, catching hers and inspecting it.

"The Ministry. Department of Mysteries. They left Greyback …in charge. Greyback started…wolfing out so the death eaters tried to force him into the pantry using stunners. It wasn't easy. You can't stun…a werewolf that easily when he's in the wolf state." panted Lupin.

"We watched from the hallway. They didn't even notice us…" Tonks added, using her sleeve to blot the sweat on Lupin's head.

"And Greyback?" asked Lily.

"Yeah…he's not going to stop in the pantry forever. He's a werewolf, not a Yorkshire terrier." Sirius said urgently, turning back towards the dusty cellar staircase as they followed. Lily and Snape hand in hand, Tonks supporting Lupin whose pallor was now reminiscent of a Vampire.

"And we're going to head them off?" Lily asked.

"For as long as we can til we can get a hold of Dumbledore." Sirius replied, pointing his wand down a spell damaged corridor where several stunned Death Eaters now lay.

"And what if the werewolf wakes up?" asked Snape.

Just then there was an almighty crash, an impatient, enraged, animalistic roar from the bottom of the corridor, accompanied by James Potter skidding out of the kitchens, falling over the hem of his robes and helping himself up running and urging them to run breathlessly.

Tonks made to move Lupin but he shook his head resolutely.

"Leave me…" he grunted.

"Remus, you're in no state-"

"I'm in…" Remus looked up, his eyes had changed from a solid green to a darker green. "…the…perfect….state."

The tweed jacket over his pajama top began to split rapidly as his spine broke through the already threadbare fabric. His transformation was beginning. The howl of Greyback had forced it.

"Run." Sirius began, staring at the man he knew transforming into the wolf he recalled from his school days.

Snape did not need a further prompting and took Lily's hand as James and Sirius ran on ahead.

Tonks was staring at Lupin as he transformed, transfixed. Her eyes wide with terror, and at the same time interest.

"Dora! Come on!" Sirius cried to her.

"Go! I can handle this!" Tonks yelled back and pulled out her wand.

Sirius seemed torn momentarily, then shook his head and urged the others through the splendid doors, leaving behind a witch, and two very angry werewolves.

Apparating inside the ministry itself was not something Snape appreciated.

He had been there only once to testify against a former-friend-turned-death eater. Augustus Rookwood.

He had forgotten the layout and very nearly apparated in the fountain of magical brethren.

"Where is the Department of Mysteries?" Potter asked, looking around and rubbing his back. "I've only ever been to petition a three match ban at the department of magical games."

"We need to use the lift." Lily said, nodding to the golden grilled elevators towards the bottom of the long, black marble foyer.

"I don't like elevators." Snape muttered. "They're unnatural."

"Just come on." Sirius implored, pulling him by his elbow. "I want to know what they're doing. I'd love to catch Lucius Malfoy, I'm desperate to get a leg up to the Auror office."

"Any word from the order?" asked Lily quickly, tapping the grills with her wand, watching the gates open to reveal a gleaming brass elevator.

"Not a peep." Potter responded as they loaded themselves into the lift.

"Department of Mysteries." Sirius said aloud to the elevator.

The lift gave a less than graceful shudder before moving.

"Ever been here?" asked Snape.

"Not the department of mysteries." Potter responded.

Lily and Sirius shook their heads.

"First time for us all then…"

There was an uncertain and uncomfortable silence as floors passed them by, visible from beyond the shining grilled doors.

Finally, the black marble of the department of mysteries slid into focus.

"Department of Mysteries." came a pleasant, yet hopelessly cold voice.

Snape shook his head urgently, to clear all concerns. The speed at which this unwanted situation was occurring was driving him insane and dulling his wit and senses.

He couldn't recall a solitary incantation and the cold sweat on the back of his neck had a feel reminiscent of his brush with dementors at the trial.

There was an unpleasant coldness that was gripping at his liver and threading its icy fingers through his stomach. He felt on the verge of vomiting.

Lily put her hand on his arm and held her wand up, its glow lighting up the sleek marble ahead. The warmth of her touch spread through him again, thawing the frozen organs within him.

She was like fire whiskey on a winter's night.

She was watching with renewed vigour, her green almond eyes hawk like in the darkness.

A number of doors lay ahead, and no way to tell of what lay behind them.

"Right…Four of us, eight doors. I'm going to come out and say it." Sirius began, taking a deep breath. "We are going to have to split up."

"No way." Snape began as Potter nodded enthusiastically. "We split up; we get lost, captured and probably killed."

"You act as if the death eaters and Malfoy's inbreeds actually stand a chance against us." Sneered Sirius, his voice echoing in the small foyer.

"Do not underestimate your enemy." warned Lily, sounding much like the old Auror Mad-Eye Moody, that mismatched doom-bringer. "But there is something in that idea. If we get into trouble, send a patronus as soon as you can. We'll meet up back here in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen?" asked Potter. "And if we're a bit caught up with battle? Dodging hexes, flicking jinxes?"

"The rest of us will meet up here and come rescue you." Lily remarked cuttingly.

Snape smirked as Sirius clapped a hand on Potter's shoulder.

"You've been told. Right…Each one take a door, see you in fifteen minutes."

With that, each of them took a door handle in their hand and after a silent count of 3 entered.

Turning the door handle, and thrusting himself into the room, Snape found himself in a room that was thick with pink light. It looked a great deal as if Dolores Umbridge had eating pot pourri and vomited everywhere…except for the scent.

The scent was simply beautiful.

Looking around, with his wand out, he knew there was absolutely nothing in this room that could hurt him.

The walls were a dusky peach, the floors a polished white marble, and in the centre of the room was a luxurious white marble fountain that was gushing out a familiar fluid.

Amortentia.

Walking towards it, the smell was getting stronger. The spiral shaped steam danced on the highly polished sheen of the potion as even the popping of the warm liquid seemed to be blowing kisses and sighing hopelessly.

Sitting on the marble pedestal bench that was surrounding the fountain, he dipped his slender, white fingers into the liquid and let it caress them before bringing them to his nose to smell.

Baking. Freshly baked fairy cakes. The scent of egg, flour, sugar and milk.

The lakeside. Water and grass. Lily pads and frogspawn.

And more curiously, the smell of Spinners end.

Snape paused for a moment, his wand resting on his lap as he allowed the intoxicating scent to completely assault his senses.

He remembered that night in the potion cupboard, the uncontrolled lust they felt for one another. It had cost him his job, but now it seemed as thought it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He could smell her skin now, her hair; her perfume…the smell was changing…

He didn't know how long he had sat there but a sudden urgency…the others, they would be waiting…

Time was running out. He had to continue.

Beyond there was another black door leading out, past the fountain. It was the only thing in the room that looked uninviting.

Most reluctantly Snape moved on, the dizzying scent of the Amortentia, stronger than he had ever brewed leaving him as soon as he opened the next door.

Inside was a strange collection of objects.

It was like a cupboard full of bizarre magical stock room of failed or secretive inventions.

There was a bell jar with an egg in it…then a chick…then a bird…then an old bird…then an egg…

A whole cupboard full of strange little miniature hourglasses in decorate golden necklaces…

There were a number of books that rattled and giggled in their shelves and occasionally whispered something inaudible that sent the other books into fits of giggles, jiggling and creasing in their dust jackets.

On another shelf, a purple vase hummed and buzzed, levitating a little before sitting back on its shelf. The stopper on the vase was made of thick cork and was sealed with wax that was cracked. Whatever was inside wanted to get out, and curiosity demanded he inspect it.

Again, Snape knew he had to pass through to the next room. Nothing in here was of any use to him at the moment even though the scholar in him begged to stay and explore.

Passing through to the next door, he noticed there was a clear, metal sign saying above the door stating:

"Warning: Do not enter alone."

Snape discarded the warning and held out his wand before pushing open the door.

Opening it, he held out his wand warningly and shone it around the large, circular room that was dark and barely lit.

He had no idea what he was meant to expect in here…

There was nothing in the small, box like room. A door opposite, no shadows, no books, nothing…whatever was in here, it must have escaped, or been destroyed by the death eaters. After all…if the death eaters were in here, they wouldn't be good enough to put up a sign warning people of their presence…unless it was a trick.

Seeing nothing, he lowered his wand and saw a human hand in the small pool of light it illuminated.

Quickly casting his wand out to see the scene better, his eyes widened and his heart stopped.

He fell to the floor in shock. His wand cascading to the floor, showing the corpse in better relief.

His eyes filling rapidly with tears that matched nothing to the agony climbing to an unbearable, screaming crescendo in his chest.

Injustice, despair and pure sorrow that had no rightful place in a heart that had seen so much of it was now immersed…drowning…

Lily.

His beautiful, pure Lily.

Dead


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

The door opposite burst open, shaking Snape out of his cocoon of agony as he turned an angry wand on the person who dared disturb him in his time of grief.

Friend or Foe, they were getting the same treatment.

It was Sirius Black.

Looking quizzically to Snape, then to Lily's corpse.

He looked incredulously at him.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Pointing his wand at Lily's still corpse he said clearly:

"Riddikulus."

There was a crack, and a puff of smoke and the corpse was gone.

It had been a boggart.

Snape let out a wail of angry despair and hid his head in his hands, gripping at the black, lank locks of hair. Sobbing, furious at himself for letting it trick him when he should have been extra vigilant, he should have noticed that the dark creature was not his girlfriend.

There was a hand on his back that patted it awkwardly.

"Listen, Sev…" Sirius began in an alien familiarity. "I get how rough this must be on you. I really…do get it.

I get how much Voldemort has it in for you and how much Lily means to you, and how much you must hate to see her in danger…but it was just a Boggart. Just a stupid Boggart."

Snape wiped his tears away with the rough cotton of his sleeve. One of the buttons scratched his cheek.

Snape sniffed a few times, wiped his nose on his sleeve and cleared his throat before looking, red eyed at Sirius.

"…If you tell Potter I cried, I'll hex you into sawdust."

Sirius nodded understandingly.

"Loud and clear."

"…Thank you." Snape said in an undertone, wiping his still running nose on his sleeve.

"Why are you here?" he asked croakily.

"You've been gone for twenty minutes; we've found a safe room. All the other rooms we were in lead to it. So I came and found you. Come on, Lils will be worried."

Pushing open the door, he saw Lily stood there, biting her thumb nail in the half-lit dankness of what seemed to be a storeroom with a large mirror in.

Snape rushed to her and embraced her tightly. She hesitated a little before embracing him back and kissed the side of his head.

"Are you alright?" she asked, pulling back to survey him. "Your eyes are red."

"I-" he began awkwardly.

"Stinging hex." Sirius said with ease, leaning on a golden mirror's frame casually. "Must be an enchanted door or something, attacks the intruder, got him straight in the eye. He'll be fine!"

Lily looked unsure but nodded, not pressing Sirius' already flimsy story.

"We're been through a few rooms. James saw a pool full of brains. A Lethifold tried to grab hold of me, didn't like my patronus much." Lily explained quickly.

"I found a fountain of Amortentia." Said Snape. "Some strange books."

"You had it easy…" began Sirius boastingly. "I got stuck in the enchanted library. Song of the Siren tried to lure me, in…fortunately, the monster book of monsters caught hold of it."

Snape let go of Lily and made to investigate their surroundings.

He busied himself with the mirror that Sirius had recently found instead.

Looking into the mirror, he couldn't detect anything remarkably magical about it and wondered why it was in here with the singing glasses that were singing a distorted choral version of the wedding march, exotic half shrivelled fauna growing in self watering vases or other discontinued magical products.

"What you looking at?" asked Potter as Sirius and Lily discussed where they had been and what they had seen.

"Nothing." Snape said dismissively, walking away. "Just a dirty mirror."

Potter looked at the mirror and stood where Snape had been as Snape walked over to Lily and Sirius to listen to the next plan of action.

He was starting to feel like they had been fools to run into an unknown place and try and figure out what Voldemort's elite had been up to, especially as the order now had no idea where they were or what they were trying to achieve.

Lily was mumbling something about going back to the foyer to check for other members of the Order.

"I reckon they know someone's in here. Thicknesse is practically in league with Voldemort. I guess they're on to us. We'll be in Azkaban by morning…"

Lily sighed and looked to Snape; she seemed disheartened by Sirius' sudden lack of bravado.

"I thought you had guts, Sirius." Snape began, swallowing down his panic and trying to bring forwards some unwilling courage. "I saw you march into Transfiguration once and give Professor McGonagall a bunch of flowers and kiss on the cheek because you lost a bet with Remus Lupin."

A smile appeared behind Sirius' facial hair.

"Yes, you got detention…and had to scrub the great hall's floor with a tooth brush…but you did it. And that took guts. So where are they now?"

"We're a bit lost, Sev." Lily sighed. "We didn't think this through."

"We're in the bowels of the ministry of magic, in the Department of Mysteries looking for Death Eaters. I'd say this was your territory completely, Lily."

Lily went to speak but instead shrugged.

"I have no idea where they'd be. Perhaps they're here for a meeting with Thicknesse."

"But why the Department of Myst-Potter, what ARE you doing?!" Snape snapped.

James Potter was stood in front of the mirror, mesmerised by his reflection. He was stroking the mirror with a hungry look on his face and admiring himself.

"Dude, you gotta come check this out…I'm Chaser for England! This is a fortune telling mirror!"

Snape rolled his eyes as Sirius smiled and slipped between him and Lily to get a better look.

"I don't see anything. Just your ugly mush." Sirius remarked.

"Seriously! You don't see the uniform, the world cup, the Bulgarian team with their faces in the mud? The fan girls?!" Potter excitedly chattered "The Veela?!"

"Nope. Just your ugly mush."

"Maybe it only does one at a time." Potter asked, moving his position to different poses and admiring the effect.

"Let me have a go."

"No, sod off. I found it."

"Technically, I found it." Snape interjected.

"Sev, please…Don't stoop-" Lily began.

Sirius dislodged Potter from his place in front of the mirror and looked into it with an air of scrutiny before smiling widely.

"Well, well, well…Hell-o there…" he crooned to his own reflection.

He beamed, turning on one heel and then the other to admire the effect.

Potter tried to peep over his shoulder.

"What? What do you see?"

"I am head of the Auror office. Yes…VERY dapper…And what's this? Lavinia Shakespeare is my wife."

"Wait, Lavinia Shakespeare as in, the actress from WADA?" snickered Potter.

"Yes." Sirius nodded.

"She's young enough to be your niece!" Lily exclaimed.

"And?" Sirius grinned.

"Enough of this, we need to move on!" Snape enthused.

"Come on, you try Lils." Sirius reached for her arm and pulled her in front of the mirror. "It must be a fortune telling mirror. They must have been discontinued or something and stowed down here for study."

"I think my gran had one…" Potter added musingly. "…or was that a manners mirror?"

Lily examined the mirror with an air of defeat before looking into its reflection with a sort of incredulity before smiling weakly.

"That is remarkable…but there is no such thing as a fortune telling mirror." she said, touching the golden frame.

"Awh." Potter mumbled. "I was going to advertise Firebolts."

"I think I remember an internal memo being sent to the Auror office about a dangerous artefact coming to stay in the ministry. Something about it being too dangerous to keep at a school and too much of a temptation."

"Temptation?" Snape began.

"I don't think it shows the future. I think it shows what you want." Lily said awkwardly, tearing her eyes from the reflection.

For the first time there was a twinge of uncertainty in Snape.

He had looked in that mirror and seen nothing.

A small squirm of comfort made him realize that perhaps he had everything he wanted…yet at the same time worried…worried for some reason.

"May I examine it?" he asked.

Lily moved aside, somewhat reluctantly.

Snape moved to look in the mirror.

He waited…there was no change.

Was this it? Was this what made him content?

No more to aspire to?

Not even in his room at Hogwarts, getting his job back?

He didn't see himself presenting Umbridge with dismissal?

He didn't see Voldemort being vanquished? He didn't see himself hexing Malfoy? He just saw himself, as he was?

Would this be enough for Lily? Would she be content to be the humble girlfriend of an out of work potions master?

Content to live in Spinners end for the rest of her days?

His heart heavy, he touched the reflection sadly. But to his surprise…His reflection's frown twisted into a smile.

Looking quizzically at his happy twin, he watched its black eyes that seemed bright with joy look to their connected finger tips…and saw the reason.

A simple difference. A simple change that meant everything.

A single band of gold that shone on the ring finger of his left hand.

Looking back at the double in the mirror it nodded to him.

"We need to get gone Sev. Sorry." Lily sighed, taking his elbow.

Snape nodded before looking back to the mirror image and nodding back leaving the happy man in the mirror behind.

They made it through several other rooms before finding themselves in a completely different kind of room.

The other rooms had been large, but this room was the size of the great hall but with none of the warmth. The marble effect had continued to this room which was dimly lit by hundreds, if not thousands of miniature orb like lights on the shelves. Each one powdered with a thick layer of dust. These objects seemed to have been placed, then left, without being disturbed again.

There was a great deal of whispering, each one seeming to speak over the next with similar urgency.

"Shh." Sirius hissed. "I think they're here."

Lily listened intently, her red hair a peculiar tint of blue in the strange light.

"It's coming from the lamps." Potter began. "The little blue lamps."

"If they are lamps." Sirius added. "My father used to talk about something called 'The Halls of Prophecy. I think we found it…"

"Only unspeakables are allowed down here. How would your father know?" Lily asked.

"My father had a lot of sway over the ministry at one point. Gave a small fortune to them. The Minster made my father privy to a lot of sensitive information. He said that only certain unspeakables had access."

"Why?" asked Potter.

"Because they were dangerous. I always reckoned my father was lying. You know, once he broke out the mead…"

"Turns out he was telling the truth…" Lily mumbled, gazing around at the many prophecies that hissed and whispered around them.

"Well, I doubt they'll be in here. Let's get going." Sirius replied, walking forwards, past the many glass, glowing orbs with his wand out.

Lily marched ahead as Potter and Snape tagged behind, bringing up the rear.

Snape had to admit at this point, not to have come in contact with any Death Eaters made him wonder if perhaps they had laid a trap and at this moment were at the school causing mayhem instead. Perhaps that is where the rest of the order were.

Just ahead, he heard louder, clearer whispers. Younger voices.

"Keep your voice down! There's someone else in here!" hissed a girls shrill voice.

"That's Ginny Weasley." Snape hissed, rushing forwards.

"Sev! Wait!" Lily called, running after him.

Snape ran down the aisles of the Hall of Prophecy, past innumerable whispering and hissing glass balls until he came across the gaggle of students.

Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, Lovegood, Granger, and Ronald Weasley.

"What on EARTH are you doing here?!" Snape began in a hoarse whisper. Apoplectic with rage.

"Sir, they're after the prophecy!" began Hermione Granger, her brown eyes wide with worry.

"What prophecy?" Snape snapped, staring at her.

"The prophecy about Neville, Professor." began Ginny.

"What nonsense is this?!" he demanded, looking at Longbottom.

The students present looked uncertainly at Longbottom who stared at Snape defiantly.

"I dreamt it. We're meant to be here."

Snape wanted to roll his eyes but Lily had caught up to him and looked at the school children stood in perhaps the most restricted part of the ministry.

"What's going on guys?" she asked in what she hoped was a cool manner.

"Professor Evans…" began Hermione, addressing her Professor.

"Lily." she enthused quickly, trying to put the teenagers at ease and get information.

"Neville had a dream that he was in here and that Professor Dumbledore was trying to get him to pick up the prophecy."

"Professor Dumbledore has been absent for the school for some time." Snape began quietly. "I doubt he would want to risk your lives and he certainly wouldn't place the idea in your head by dreams."

"But this means something!" Neville cried holding up a cold looking glass orb.

Lily drew back as if it were some form of grenade.

"Where did you find that, Neville?" she asked, her calmness now slightly shakier.

Hermione pointed to an empty shelf which now had a clear patch in the dust.

"Pretty, isn't it?" asked Luna dreamily. "Like a bubble…"

"Stunning…And now you can hand it over…"

Snape turned around, his wand in hand as he heard the silken undertones of the voice.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Lucius Malfoy was stood there, his wand pointed into the side of James Potter's neck, to his left stood Bellatrix, her wand in her hand and pointed to Sirius' temple.

"All we want is that prophecy." Lucius continued a look of triumph on his face.

Snape looked to Lily who looked torn but he knew her brain was working ten to the dozen.

"Let them go." Neville insisted, his hopelessly childish voice in the echoing room.

"And why would I do that?" sneered Lucius, looking condescendingly upon the boy.

"Because I'll smash this on the floor and your boss will be pretty bloody annoyed."

Lucius' smile wavered.

"If you do that, I will kill these people and you will have their blood on your hands."

"I'm betting you want this prophecy really bad." Neville piped up, his round cheeks flushing. "Why else would your boss have you come out of hiding? In the middle of the ministry?"

Lucius carefully licked his bottom lip as Bellatrix leaned forwards, her hand tangled in a knot of hair on Sirius' head.

"…Your mum and dad squealed like babies before they died." she grinned.

Snape could see Longbottom's colour rising.

"My mum and dad died straight backed and strong and you hated that didn't you?"

Bellatrix's sadistic smile intensified.

"I still remember the look on your mothers face as she watched your father die."

Snape wanted to slap the smile off of her face and looked to Lily desperately. She was looking around, following her gaze, she had seen that other death eaters were slowly closing in on the few school children and them. There were too many wands pointed at them to try and make any kind of assault.

Behind them, Granger and Ginny Weasley were chattering rapidly as Lovegood looked on with an almost polite interest.

"You shut up about my mother." snapped Longbottom, his wand clutched in his hand. "Bring on your master. I want to deal with the puppeteer. Not the puppet."

"Neville mate…" Ronald Weasley cautioned.

"No, I want to deal with the boss. Not these idiots."

Snape saw Granger nod quickly and in turn watched those present faces the Death Eaters. Lily appeared to mirror them and he in turn copied.

"You'll see him soon enough. And what's more lickle Longbottom, you'll hand over that prophecy."

Longbottom stepped back, as Ronald Weasley copied.

"No. I won't…STUPEFY!"

The cry was echoed all around as Death Eaters were thrown off their feet at every side; Bellatrix threw Sirius aside as she pointed her wand at Longbottom.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

The Prophecy slipped from his fingers and soared towards her. Snape took his chance and shot a curse at her. The momentary distraction caused the sphere to fall in mid air as she deflected the curse.

Ginny Weasley made a lunge for the falling prophecy and caught it but not before Lucius aimed a kick at her jaw knocking her to the floor.

This seemed to inflame Longbottom who sent a barrage of curses that Snape found impossible for him to know.

An arm wrapped around Snape's neck and started to pull, choking him.

"'ello mate…."

The smell of stale tobacco and poorly fermented mead assaulted his senses. Rookwood.

Snape tried to get his arm free to cast a curse but Rookwood was already pressing it down with his other arm.

Just then a curse hit him directly between the eyes and he fell back, his head swelling to twice its normal size.

Snape looked at his saviour and saw Luna Lovegood standing there looking mildly pleased with herself.

"First time I've managed that…It works rather well, don't you find?"

Sirius was duelling with Bellatrix as Potter had attacked Lucius without a wand and was suffering from various side effects from unfriendly hexes. Ginny Weasley and Granger were fending off Death Eaters as Lily and Lovegood were duelling off others.

Longbottom and Ronald Weasley were taking on a set of Death Eaters.

Snape knew them instantly.

Amycus and Alecto Carrow, brother and sister Death Eaters, constantly in competition to be the most brutal, the most vicious.

Snape sent indiscriminate hexes at the pair shortly before Bellatrix turned tail, sending curses flying in her wake screaming:

"FOLLOW ME! THE DARK LORD AWAITS!"

He saw that with her free hand, she held the dark mark on her wrist that was no doubt burning as he drew near.

The other Death Eaters followed rapidly, Lucius bringing up the rear.

"COWARDS!" screamed Lily. "Come back and fight!"

Longbottom looked to Snape, then to Sirius.

"What do we do now?"

"We get you back to Hogwarts. We cannot apparate in here; we must get to the floo network and pray there is still a connection." Snape said, breathing heavily. "Lily, are you alright?"

Lily nodded, she looked pale and battle-dirty but otherwise unharmed. James Potter was fixing Ginny's Weasley's lip, she was shaken, but managing a weak, bloody smile whilst cradling the prophecy in her hands.

Longbottom was patting Granger on the back and nodding to Lovegood who was smiling dreamily as if she were merely watching a play.

Ronald Weasley was relaying the story of how they got there to Sirius who was nodding.

"If we follow the way back we can get through to the entrance." began Sirius. "I say it's our best option before The Dark Lord gets here."

"He's not going to leave without the prophecy." Lily began.

"What is it anyway?" asked Potter.

"I don't know. But it had my name on it." Longbottom began uneasily; Snape could tell he was starting to wish he had never laid a hand on it.

"Either way, we're taking it with us. Neville, you keep a good, tight grip on it and don't let ANYONE take it from you."

With that, Ginny Weasley handed it over.

"We'll form a tight formation around you, keep your wands handy and don't be afraid to break out the big hexes." Sirius detailed.

Longbottom nodded, almost grateful that someone in charge had come to take over.

At cardinal points, the four guarded the group of teenagers carefully as they jogged towards the doorway they had entered in through.

Except that this time, there was no mirror. Instead it was simply a dark room with several doors.

"Which door?" asked Sirius.

"Any. It doesn't matter; they all go to the same place." Potter said irritably, Lucius had managed to break his nose and he wasn't sure it was set properly, his vanity was showing.

Sirius opened a door way and paused.

"What is this place?"

It was a large amphitheatre place that had a raised platform in the centre. An old archway with a tattered curtain that flowed freely in a breeze that they could not feel.

"…Freaky." Ronald Weasley declaimed.

"There's a door opposite. Come on, quickly. No dallying." Snape ordered and nodded them through, bringing up the rear.

The throng hurried across the large expanse of bare, dusty stone floor and made haste towards the door only to find a cold, high voice clearly laughing.

"I must admit. I expected the children…but I did not expect for you to be here, Severus. Why, it's like losing a Knut and finding a Galleon."

Snape looked around wildly.

He knew the voice…yet he couldn't place it.

A slender, pale, dark robed man descended the stairs opposite.

Lord Voldemort.

"Surely, you must realize that it was I, Longbottom that placed the dream in your head to get here. Surely you must realize that you have endangered the lives of your friends, and teachers, to bring them here to me. Surely, you must realize that you will hand me the prophecy, and then…you shall die."

Snape stole a glance at Lily who was now ashen faced, but her grip on her wand though she shook, was steady.

"Hand over the prophecy." Voldemort began. "And your death will be short."

"Never." Longbottom said with a firmness that did not seem to match the childish face. "I'd rather die."

"Oh, that can be arranged." Voldemort began conversationally. "But hand it over now, there's a good lad."

Suddenly, the arena was swooping with black trails of dust, Snape could barely see. He reached out instinctively for Lily but she had already gone. Shielding his eyes he looked for her but found himself grabbed and apparated to somewhere else, someone gripping him tighter.

"…Severus Snape…" chuckled the foul smelling breath of his captor.

"Ro-ok…wood." choked Snape.

He looked around through bleary eyes and saw the others, the teenagers, Sirius and Potter had been captured too by Death Eaters.

Lily had been captured by Bellatrix who was not so much restraining her but holding her close, whispering into her ear, her glassy nails poised on her throat.

Snape felt with a shiver of fear and revulsion, knowing that it was Bellatrix's capability and would be her pleasure to rip out Lily's throat.

Snape struggled against Rookwood as Voldemort advanced upon Longbottom, his wand resting carelessly in his fingers.

He could strike him dead at any moment…

"Give me, the prophecy, boy."

Longbottom's hand tightened around the cool, smoky glass sphere as he gazed around at his friends. Alecto Carrow pulled Granger's hair tight as she whimpered.

Longbottom looked down and very reluctantly began to hand over the glass sphere.

Voldemort stretched out his hand, a gleam of triumph in the red eyes flashed.

Suddenly, Longbottom let his hand slip as the Prophecy fell, in what seemed to be slow motion to the floor.

The smash of it seemed far louder than it should have been and an indistinct whispering filled the room as the smoke dispersed into the room.

Voldemort watched it dissipate before looking at Longbottom with anger, disbelief and murderous intent.

"Now neither of us have it." Longbottom pronounced gravely.

Snape heard Sirius laughing, a laugh of pride and of encouragement.

Around them light seemed to be flashing, people apparating with pops, Death Eaters were disapparating, abandoning their charges to duel them.

A flash of purple and leather gloves told Snape that Tonks was here. Two frazzles of red hair showed that some Weasley's were here. The whiz of a blue eye and the swish of purple robes meant that Mad Eye and Shacklebolt were present too.

Looking across to Lily, she had snatched up her wand again and was duelling Bellatrix who had not dared leave her master who was effortlessly duelling the two members of the Order Of the Phoenix who had stood in front of Longbottom.

"THE KIDS! GET THE KIDS OUT OF HERE!" bellowed Mad Eye who was putting a Death Eater on his back with a hex that appeared to dance around his body.

Snape stood up straight and dodging debris and misfired jinxes started to round up the teenagers who had broken curfew.

Lovegood had sustained a bloody nose and Granger was now limping, using Ronald Weasley's arm as support.

"Follow me!" he demanded and started to usher the teens out, looking behind him for Lily who had been joined by Tonks.

He found the way ahead was the atrium where they had entered and rushed towards one of the fireplaces.

"Quickly! Each of you, one at a time, into the fire and say: Hogwarts: Potion Master's study. You will appear in my room. STAY THERE. Do not move!"

The students all nodded and started to disappear into the flames one by one until Longbottom was left behind.

"In you go." Snape said breathlessly.

"No. He wants me. I have to face him." Longbottom said, his face pale yet resolute.

"Don't be an idiot. Get in the fire."

"No."

"Longbottom, I will not ask you again, if you defy me again I will throw you into the fire myself!" Snape spat.

A spell hit the fireplace's chimney and the green flames died, the grate hitting the floor sealing access.

"It is over, Longbottom."

Voldemort was stood mere feet away, his wand in hand.

Snape went to cast a protective charm but before he could reach for his wand Voldemort had cast Expelliarmus and sent him crashing into the wall.

The scene before him faded hopelessly in front of his eyes.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

When Snape came to, he remembered seeing the brightest light he had ever seen. Wondering if he was in the hospital wing of Hogwarts, he felt the coldness of marble beneath him and realized he was still in the ministry.

Getting up he felt the warm trickle of blood down his cheek. Gingerly touching it, he felt a gash at least 4 inches long on his cheek.

"Lily?"

Snape ran down the marble corridor looking for someone, anyone who he knew, who could tell him where Lily was.

He heard the familiar sound of spells hitting things, grinding metal, shouts and grunts. A whisp of black curly hair flying back and forth followed by the flow of red hair.

Bellatrix…Lily.

Picking up the pace he ran, ignoring the burning in his cheek, trying to reach her.

"LILY?"

Ahead, he saw Bellatrix engaged in a duel with her as Lily matched her curse for curse, hex for hex, jinx for jinx.

Dodging and ducking nimbly as if it were a mere dance she had practiced many times before.

Bellatrix's usual pallor had taken on an angry tinge of red, her lips darkening with rage, and Lily's forehead was beaded with sweat yet no trace of strain was on her face, she was in complete control.

He could not see Voldemort nor Longbottom and feared the worst, but right now, his quarrel was with Bellatrix, she was trying to kill his girlfriend.

Picking up his wand he went to aim a curse but Lily rebuffed him swiftly.

"SHE'S MINE." she cried.

"You Muggle scum." Bellatrix spat. "You'll die a Muggles death you filthy MUDBLOOD!"

Lily thrust her arm forwards and sent a curse at Bellatrix that was too near.

Bellatrix fell back slightly, just about regaining her composure.

Snape backed off immediately, knowing that Lily was duelling to the death and he was hopeless to simply gaze on.

The pair were duelling with such ferocity that the air seemed to crackle with magic and electricity. Bellatrix was so furious she was not casting deathly spells, instead, it was as if she were fighting to keep her head above water…

Was Lily Bellatrix's match?

Lily's face was bathed with sweat and her hand was tight on her wand so much so that he could see the skin around it turning white with effort, her eyes were fixed and unblinking, she was duelling like a true Auror.

Behind him he heard the urgent footsteps of two people, tearing his eyes away from the battle to see Sirius, mildly scratched up and nursing his wrist and Potter, still holding his nose which had started gushing again.

"Order are here, rounding up the rest of the Death Eaters. Where's Longbottom?"

Snape did not answer, his eyes focused on Lily, his wand at the ready.

Potter already had his wand out to help Lily but Snape stopped him.

"Don't get involved! She wants to do this alone!" Snape warned.

"But Lily!" Potter bleated.

"She's fine. TRUST me."

Potter wrung his hands as Sirius stared intently at the battle, unable to pass to search for Longbottom and Voldemort for fear of being hit by a deadly curse.

There was a loud cry in the distance and Bellatrix stood still, hearing it.

Lily prepared to hex her, taking advantage of her opponents pause in battle.

Bellatrix aimed a shield at her taking her off her feet before charging down the corridor after the cry.

Lily fell to the floor.

Snape dashed over immediately to help her up. Lily stood up and dusted herself down unnecessarily.

"Coward. Bitch." she snapped and looked at him. "Bloody coward. Dumbledore is with Longbottom, he's duelling Voldemort. Let's go!" she enthused.

Snape nodded and took her arm, taking off at a run again.

The four of them ran down the long corridor where Bellatrix had ran and found Longbottom stood behind Dumbledore who was engaging Voldemort in the most inexplicably complicated looking duel.

The fountain of magical brethren had come to life and were charging around. Bellatrix was nowhere to be found and the many windows that made up the offices around the atrium had been shattered and lay in sand-fine dust on the ground.

Voldemort was losing,

Voldemort was LOSING.

Snape could taste the triumph in the air, Dumbledore was going to defeat him, all of this would be over!

Voldemort suddenly disappeared. Disapparated into thin air…he had fled.

Snape looked to Dumbledore who turned to Longbottom.

But Longbottom was gasping, choking…holding his chest, he fell to the ground in the glass dust and lay still.

Dumbledore fell to his knees with the ease of a man half his age, but with the concern

of a man twice his age, reaching for Longbottom, trying to ease his pain, but when Longbottom opened his eyes, it was not him any longer.

Those red eyes did not belong to the boy who lived…they were Voldemort's.

Lily recoiled in horror. Potter covered his mouth. Sirius swore as Snape fell to his knees beside Dumbledore.

"What do we do?" he asked Dumbledore urgently.

"He is possessed. He must fight him." Dumbledore began grimly. "You must fight, Neville. This is not who you are. Fight him!"

Longbottom was struggling. The red changed to blue, the blue to green, the green to red. He was fighting. His featured appeared to morph yet did not.

For several agonizing moments, it was as if he was dead and suddenly he gave a great gasp and his eyes had returned to their normal colour as he sat up.

His eyes fixed on something in the distance.

Following his gaze, Snape saw Voldemort barely reform with enough time to glare at them, and then he disapparated. Gone.

Dumbledore rested his hand on Neville's head and looked him over before nodding comfortingly, but with a trace of worry on his face.

Finally, Dumbledore stood up and faced them.

"I think we've all had more than enough adventure tonight, Mr. Potter, if you could please send a message to Minerva, and tell her to expect Mr. Longbottom in my office, I think we should find it untouched by Headmistress Umbridge's influence. A once over from Poppy then some hot chocolate and bed, Neville…"

He pointed his wand at the head of one of the magical brethren and said:

"Portus."

It glowed for a moment, then was still.

"…You're going back, Headmaster?" asked Snape.

"Yes. I think so."

"But Umbridge…"

"I wouldn't worry about her too much, Severus. She will be happily resigning tonight after I have dealt with her…"

Snape wondered what Dumbledore could possibly know that could make that old battleaxe resign with smile but already feeling his sensitive head he would allow Dumbledore to explain it to him later.

"What about the mess, Professor?" asked Sirius. "People are going to notice their windows aren't there any more and that the fountain is screwed over."

"Not to mention the mess in the Halls of Prophecy." Potter nodded. "Bloody mess in there it is."

"I think the ministry will be a much different place tomorrow, Sirius. I wouldn't worry about it. But if I were you, I would put your application to be an auror on hold."

Sirius gave a weak smile and looked to Potter.

"I saw we earned a drink, three broomsticks? On me?" he offered. "If the place is still open that is!"

"Sounds good!" Potter concluded. "I say my nose can wait…makes me look more rugged I reckon."

Snape stood up to his full height.

"I might join you actually."

Potter made a face to suggest this would be alright by him.

"Whey-hey!" Sirius celebrated. "Drinks on you!"

Snape rolled his eyes and turning to Lily he went to ask her if she would consent to join them but she was looking deathly pale, and her eyes seemed unfocused.

"…Lily?"

She looked at him before her eyes rolled up into her head and she passed clean out.

"LILY!" Snape cried as Sirius caught her before she hit the floor.

"Whoa!" he called as she collapsed into his arms.

"SHIT! LILY!" Potter shouted.

"Longbottom, go, wait for me in the office." Dumbledore ordered firmly. "Go."

Longbottom touched the portkey and was gone, his round face worried again.

Dumbledore conjured a stretcher without a second thought and flicking his wand at Lily, lifted her onto it, surveying her briefly for magical injury.

"I see no signs of magical damage, how long was she duelling Bellatrix?" he asked, looking at her face and torso. They appeared undamaged, battle dirty, but undamaged.

"I woke up and they were fighting. But Lily was winning!" Snape said, his face horror-struck as he looked at her. Desperate for a way to try and fix what had happened.

Dumbledore pointed his wand at a broken piece of door which glowed brightly, then returned to its natural state.

"Take her straight to Poppy." he said with a quiet urgency to Sirius.

Snape looked down at her, her face pale and her skin clammy. She seemed to be breathing easily enough, but what had caused her to faint?!

Had she been hit?

Had she been injured and not said?

What had Bellatrix done?!

Each of them took a piece of the portkey in their fingers before feeling the irresistible pull behind the navel that took them to where they needed to be.

The smell of disinfectant that hit Snape like a tidal wave told him he was in the hospital wing. Dumbledore had sent them into the castle directly…

"What on earth?!" Poppy shrieked, carrying a lantern and looking already rather harassed.

"Poppy! It's Lily!" Sirius began, carrying her stretcher to the nearest bed.

"What's going on?" She asked placing the back of her hand on Lily's forehead.

Snape couldn't speak. He couldn't utter a word, he couldn't do anything that meant he had to be separated from Lily. Holding her clammy unresponsive hand in his own made him think she was falling away from him and he had to hold on to her…as long as he was holding her hand she had a chance.

Sirius was rapidly telling Poppy Pomfrey the main body of what had happened and Poppy interrupted telling him that she had several of the casualties in the ward at the moment and was tending to their various ailments.

After what seemed an eternity of time wasting questions, Poppy nodded and told them to put Lily on the bed.

Handling her as gently as they could in front of Snape who looked ready to use the cruciatus curse on anyone who so much as bruised her, Poppy put her hand on Snape's arm.

"You must wait outside, I need space to work." she said softly.

"No. No. You don't understand. If I let her go, she'll fall." Snape muttered, his eyes stinging from unshed tears.

"No, she's safe. She's fine-"

"She'll fall! I will not let her fall!" Snape snapped, tears rolling down his cheeks from his red rimmed eyes.

"Severus, please." began Poppy.

"Lily, please wake up, Lily!" he said urgently, tapping her face, desperate for her to show she was at least in some way alright. He heard other people stirring in the beds, some soft whispers of students who were watching their Potions master cry, but he didn't care.

But, it was Sirius who put his hand on Snape's shoulder.

"Sev, Poppy can't do anything with you in her way. How about you let her get to work, and then you can see Lily when she's awake. Poppy will have her awake in no time, right Pop'?"

Poppy normally wouldn't have appreciated this level of familiarity but instead nodded, a pained look on her face as she saw Snape in a way she had never seen him before.

So hurt, so agonized.

Snape nodded, his fingers clinging to Lily's until Sirius steered him away.

He became wracked with dry sobs as Sirius led him out of the ward, away from the prying eyes of nosy teenagers and the concerned matron.

"Yeah, that's right. Come on…let's wait outside for her, eh? Get you cleaned up. You don't want her to see you in this state do you? You look like you've been on the back end of a Comet 140." Sirius continued, steering Snape who looked utterly crestfallen, walking aimlessly, looking as though deflated, his robes seemed several sizes too big and his eyes hollow.

Sirius sat Snape down on the bench as the doors behind them were closed hurriedly.

"You look a right mess." Sirius smiled weakly. "You carry on looking like this, she might just choose Potter over you, then again, I don't reckon she was concussed."

The joke was wasted on Snape who simply sat there, the sorrow etched into every premature wrinkle on his face, looking like a man who had aged 20 years in 20 minutes.

Sirius gave a deep sigh and looked up at stone ceiling before looking at Snape who was now sat between him and Potter.

"…She'll be fine. Trust me. Lily is resilient. She's an Auror. It's trained into them." He looked at his own hands that were battle dirty and blistered from the impact of spells.

"I know how you feel about her. I really do. I don't think I've ever seen anyone, THAT much…you know, in love with someone else. I'm…jealous, truth be told."

Snape blinked away some stale tears and looked to Potter.

"…Potter, Sirius…Thank you for today." he croaked, his voice somewhat empty and vacant.

"Hey, wouldn't have missed it for the world!" Potter interjected, glad that things were back on a level he could appreciate after Sirius' unscheduled heart-to-heart.

The silence between them was dour, but right now every desire in the world, to speak, to eat, to sleep, to breathe and function was tied to the unconscious woman in the room next door.

He had never considered what would happen to Lily in battle. He always assumed if either of them were to fall under someone else's wand, it would be him. It had been before, and he didn't care so long as the woman he loved was alright.

He felt as if he could crawl out of hell for her and be absolutely fine…

But her?

Seeing her like this, unconscious, vulnerable. Sick…dying?

Snape put his hand over his eyes, shielding them from view in case fresh tears came. That heavy feeling in his chest, that painful heavy feeling that would be released by stinging tears.

Snape felt a hand on his back and knew it was Sirius or Potter.

It was not as comforting as it should have been…

'_Anything but her…take me, just not her.'_

Bellatrix's cold, mirthless laugh filled his ears, his hopelessly full head. If she had done this, she would pay…he would hunt her down, night and day until he had her blood on his hands.

He dismissed it. The brief satisfaction of seeing her lifeless body was nothing compared to the deafening roar of panic that swept through his skull like a maelstrom.

There was no room in his head. Every spare inch was devoted to keeping her alive, keeping her alive in his head.

If he imagined her breathing, her eyes opening, her waking up…it would happen.

His sole purpose was to keep her alive.

The more he thought, the more he was sure he could pour his life into her, and force her to wake…He could not consider the alternative.

It was an eternity of silent, studious, mental maintenance for him, though of course Dumbledore came and spoke to them.

Explained the students had been found by Professor Slughorn in The Potion Master's study and taken to the hospital wing and how Ginny Weasley had to be forced to leave the room after following explicit instructions by Professor Snape.

How the Minister of Magic had arrived shortly after their departure and a very uncomfortable, very poorly acted show of surprise and horror had been performed by Thicknesse with promises of a full investigation.

How Longbottom had inadvertently been tricked into retrieving the prophecy for Voldemort, but now that neither had it, that crisis had been temporarily averted.

How Tonks had stowed Lupin into the cellar of Malfoy manor with a bombardment of hexes, before joining the battle at the ministry and now their Defence against the dark arts teacher was resting in his study.

And how after mentioning that parents would have to be informed that several students were 'tricked' by Voldemort into leaving the school under her watch, not to mention several breaches of educational decrees that predated her, Dolores happened to realize her work at the ministry was more important, and through gritted teeth, she would have to reappoint Dumbledore.

But it was wasted on Snape…he had no ears for him.

Just for the creaky double doors of the hospital wing.

Dawn was beginning to rise when the doors finally opened and Madam Pomfrey stepped out. She looked tired, and a little unsure.

Snape found himself standing as she approached, his knees weakened and shaking.

"…Severus…" she drew him aside away from Potter and Sirius who were surveying them with tired, concerned interest.

"…what is it, Poppy?" Snape whispered, his face pale.

"Severus…" she began, her voice quiet and full of emotion.

"…What is it?" he asked, his eyes strained.

"…It's something we've never seen here at Hogwarts before." Poppy explained quietly.

Snape closed his eyes, fresh tears rolled down his stubbly cheeks as he held his head.

What kind of magical illness or injury could be so severe that even Poppy, a matron at a boarding school for Magic had never even seen it.

"…Can it be treated?" he asked finally, his voice fractured with emotion. "I will do anything…"

"Oh yes." she said softly. "…In fact, it sort of treats itself…"

Snape looked at her, and to his surprise, saw that she was smiling weakly.

"…What…What do you-?"

"Lily's pregnant, Severus."


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25 **

Snape felt a sudden weight released from his shoulders, like shrugging off a large, heavy blanket. And warmth started to spread from his chest, through his shoulders…down his arms…Like a warm embrace.

"…Pregnant?" he whispered, his voice heavy with emotion.

"…Yes." Poppy nodded.

Snape felt more tears growing in his eyes.

He felt something strange, a desire to laugh.

A desire to smile.

Snape was fighting a stammer that was starting in his lower jaw as emotion and desire for information fought.

Bowing his head, he looked at Poppy and asked: "…Is she alright? Why did she-?"

"It's quite common in women of her condition." Poppy nodded, keeping her voice low. "She just needs some rest, and when she feels better something to eat. But give her a few days and she'll be as right as rain."

"…Does she know?" Snape asked. "…Does she know she's-?"

"…Yes, she's known for a while." Poppy smiled.

"She's awake?" Snape asked quickly.

Poppy nodded, a small smile now playing on her lips.

"Can I see her?" He asked, his voice catching in his throat.

Poppy nodded and stepped back, opening the double doors for him.

"Just try and keep her relaxed. She's meant to be resting up."

Snape nodded and briefly grasped her hands before taking a deep breath and walking into the ward.

The occupants were asleep in their hospital cots, and Lily's bed was shielded from view by curtains. Snape slipped in between the curtains around the bed and looked for Lily.

The cubicle was dimly lit by a lantern, bracketed into the wall. Besides her was a glass vase which had a bunch of conjured daisies, artfully arranged on a hospital cabinet.

She was sleeping, her long red hair fanned out on the crisp white pillows; her skin no longer battle stained but clear and she wore a white nightgown. Her hand rested on her stomach.

Her light brown eyelashes resting delicately on her cheeks that were now a healthy pink instead of the deathly wan they had been earlier.

Snape noticed as she lay there, her collarbones were absolutely perfect. He'd never noticed that before.

Her lips were plump, in that beautiful way that they were when she was resting. Kissable, in fact…

Snape stood over her.

She was suddenly transformed in his eyes. No longer simply a woman, albeit a woman who had captured his heart. She was now an ethereal being.

She glowed. She was his patronus…

Carrying the possibility of a new life within her own body. And it was his.

Snape never really believed in miracles. But she was his.

Putting his hand over hers, he interlocked his fingers with hers and stroked her hair slowly.

Tonight he had come so close to losing her, to losing everything and everyone.

And here he was, with a fresh start. She had brought him a fresh start…

He leaned down and kissed her cheek as softly as he could.

Her eye lids fluttered weakly and she opened her eyes.

Those beautiful green eyes.

Snape smiled and stroked her hair away from her face.

"Hello…" he smiled.

She smiled, and exhaled in relief.

"Sev…" She reached up and stroked his stubbly cheek.

He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it gently.

"…Are you alright?" she asked.

He nodded.

"…Better than alright."

Lily's cheeks took on a sudden blush as Snape's hand rested on her abdomen.

"…Sev…"

Snape smiled and held her hand tight.

"…I…I was afraid to tell you." she began. "…you were so sad, so depressed. I didn't want to add to your worries."

"How did you find out?" Snape asked, stroking her hand that was now resting against his cheek.

Lily swallowed.

"I was late by the end of January. I had an idea it might be something to do with stress. But then I started to get morning sickness…"

Snape remembered hearing Lily crying in the bathroom the last few weeks before work and realized what it was.

"…I went to the Muggle pharmacy and took a pregnancy test-"

"…Pregnancy test?" Snape asked, his forehead furrowed.

"It's a stick you-never mind. And it was positive…"

Snape nodded, smiling at her.

"Are we alright?" Lily asked. "…Are we going to be alright?"

Snape smiled, gently stroking her stomach.

"We're all going to be alright."

Lily gave him the brightest smile he had seen for months.

"I love you."

"I love you." Snape replied and leaned down to kiss her.

Outside there was a sudden commotion.

"I must insist Minister; you are not permitted into my ward where my patients are convalescing!" Snape heard Poppy shriek.

"Step aside woman. I need to speak to the witnesses immediately."

The minister had a soft menace to his voice.

"Get away from the door, Minister." Snape heard Potter begin.

"Do you want me to revoke your privilege to play Quidditch?" The minister snapped.

"I dunno, do you want me to tell Rita Skeeter that you've got a receding hairline and oily skin?"

"Nice one, James." he heard Sirius say in a stern, approving tone.

"Both of you will wait here with Ministry officials for questioning while I speak to Auror Evans and Severus Snape."

"I'm not talking to anyone without my publicist present, Bludger-head." Potter retorted.

Snape put Lily's hand back on the bed and prepared to go out into the foyer to sort out this problem. Ducking between the curtains he saw Granger trying to sit up in bed as Luna Lovegood started to button up her dressing gown whilst sporting a bandage across her nose.

"Everyone, simmer down." Snape began quietly before walking towards the double doors. "Let me deal with this."

The double doors opened as The Minister stood there, framed by the soft glow of the lanterns outside of the ward.

"Could you keep it down? I have students in here." Snape began evenly.

"You are to report to the Ministry for questioning." began the Minister firmly. "I have intelligence you and several others have lured students to the Ministry with the intention of causing damage and overthrowing the Wizarding government!"

"…Are you serious?" Snape asked incredulously, his hands poised on the door knobs of the double doors. "I mean, have you actually lost the small portion of your mind you managed to retain when you entered into politics."

The Ministers eyebrows arched making him look somewhat like an owl.

"Severus Snape. I hereby arrest you as Minister of Mag-"

"Enough."

Snape looked behind Thicknesse where Dumbledore was casually walking down the corridor in a magnificent grey velvet dressing gown and sleeping cap as calmly as if he were on the way back from the bathroom.

"Pius." he began calmly.

"Minister, to you, Dumbledore." The minister began rudely. "I have every right to-"

"You have no rights in this school, Pius." began Dumbledore just as calmly. "As recently reappointed headmaster of this school, I am within my rights to eject you from this establishment as I see fit."

"I don't think so, Dumbledore. Your school is under the care of the Ministry."

"That was until tonight…Tonight Lord Voldemort returned to the Ministry after luring Neville Longbottom there to retrieve the Prophecy from the Department of Mysteries and duelled not only myself but also several other people."

"Doxyrot! The boy is obsessed with his own fame and has probably brainwashed several of his ardent followers to speak up for him. You sent them the Ministry Dumbledore! To overthrow the Ministry!"

Dumbledore surveyed Thicknesse for a few moments.

"…How long, will you continue with this pretence, Pius?"

Thicknesse stared back at Dumbledore coldly.

"I am closing this school down until I can find a suitable replacement for you, Dumbledore. Auror Evans, Severus Snape, Sirius Black and James Potter as well as several others who were there last night will be accompanying me to the Ministry where they will be questioned by Aurors until their guilt, or innocence is determined. You will also be detained for your part played. I hold you responsible for this terrible state of affairs."

Dumbledore smiled pleasantly and removed a note from his dressing gown pocket.

"Dolores Umbridge left last night. In doing so she actually resigned her position as High Inquisitor."

"Yes, what of it?" Thicknesse snapped.

"In doing so, she voided all of the educational decrees she enforced."

"And?!"

"Including her final decree in which she determined that Hogwarts was an extension of the Ministry and subject to its bylaws and rules."

Thicknesse's face seemed to drop.

"In leaving, and voiding the decree, she inadvertently severed the Ministry's already existing ties which were voided with the new decree…Meaning that you, Minister, are actually trespassing."

"That is tosh! I never signed such a decree!" Snarled Thicknesse. "I demand to be shown a copy of the full decree!"

"It'll be in your paperwork, Minister." Dumbledore said airily. "After all, you signed it this morning…You see, Minerva, my deputy head, has been watching Dolores very closely to look for an opportunity to give her just enough rope to hang herself.

Whilst Dolores was resting on her laurels having vanquished myself, Severus here and Miss. Evans from the school and generally lowering the morale of the students. Minerva casually mentioned that she had found some evidence that prompted Dolores to write to you to grant her supreme power over the school. Finally, Hogwarts had the Ministry running through it with her as its fist to bring down the might of the Ministry whenever it was needed."

"I would never sign it!"

"Of course you wouldn't. Not knowingly. By signing it you risked something like this happening, you knew that Dolores had a nasty streak and could land herself in hot water so why would you give her any real power with a decree like this…unless you were sufficiently distracted…?"

Thicknesse looked at Dumbledore quizzically.

"…This morning, or rather, yesterday morning-" Dumbledore began looking at the dawn breaking over the mountains outside. "-The Auror office was plagued with some terribly bad weather regarding some rogue gastropods.

In fact, the whole Auror office was put out of action just as Ministry officials were arriving and Hogwarts students were having their breakfast. Minerva mentioned at the breakfast table that the whilst I may be gone, that the students still remained loyal to me. As a result, she decoded this to mean that the DA, Dumbledore's Army, that band of students who will always be loyal to me were still active right under her nose. Of course, that is nonsense. The students would never dare do anything so reckless."

Sirius grinned behind Dumbledore.

"Feeling the power she held over the school since my dismissal slipping from her fingers, she sent you a hurried copy of a new educational decree. Decree number One Hundred and Thirty Seven: The Ministry of Magic hereby extends its rules and bylaws to Hogwarts and in doing so is an extension of the Ministry."

Thicknesse's pallor was rising to an unpleasant puce.

"…You were called from your desk by the Head of the Auror office who requested permission to call Maintenance to deal with the sudden adverse weather conditions and in doing so you unconsciously signed _'__another one of those blasted decrees_'."

Potter was practically leaping around with glee as Sirius grinned insanely.

"I have to admit, it was rather a miraculous turn of events that was so wonderfully coincidental that I dare say nobody could have planned it." Dumbledore smiled benignly.

Snape couldn't help a smile beginning to surface on his own face.

"So, If I could ask you and your ministry officials to kindly leave me to run my school in peace and quiet, you will receive a letter from me in due course regarding how we are to successfully organise this little situation."

Thicknesse was shaking with rage now.

"This. Isn't. Over. Dumbledore."

"No. I certainly hope not." Dumbledore replied coldly, staring at the Minister with calculating blue eyes.

Thicknesse gave a nod to the Ministry officials that had been flanking Potter and Sirius and they walked down the long corridor that led to the staircase.

Dumbledore sighed deeply and then looked to Madam Pomfrey who had been clutching her wand to her breast and looking visibly shaken.

"Poppy, I suggest a medicinal nip of brandy for all of us, barring the students and Lily of course."

"…Why can't Lily have any?" asked Potter. "She too sick?"

Snape inclined his head slightly as if to ask how Dumbledore could possibly know that Lily was pregnant.

Dumbledore gave him a generous look as if to explain he'd tell him another time.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Lily had been released from the hospital wing late on the same day. Poppy had denied her all visitors for at least 12 hours after Pius and Dumbledore's verbal altercation so she could get some decent rest and had sent Severus to get some sleep.

But sleep was the very last thing on Snape's mind.

His head was buzzing with the thought of Lily's body bearing a new life. His child, their child was developing within her body right this moment.

After eventually falling into a dreamless, sweet sleep. He showered, changed into fresh clothes and walked down to collect his girlfriend from the hospital wing.

Naturally, the school was in a state of frozen normality. Students gossiped as he walked by. Teachers seemed to be in their own confused states. Ushering students to their next classes with a sort of preoccupied concern.

He found Lily talking with Poppy in her office. Poppy was going over a few pamphlets with Lily when Snape walked in.

Poppy smiled at Lily who got off the desk she was perched on and wrapped her arms around him.

He buried his head in her red hair and embraced her as carefully as if she were made of glass.

Lily smiled and looked back at Poppy.

"Told you, he's treating me weird already."

"Severus, you can still treat her the same." began Poppy "Be cautious with her…No midnight raids at the ministry. Lily, remember…hand in your letter today. No more missions."

"I don't think I'm welcome back at the ministry any way, Poppy. Not after last night." Lily smiled. "Not that I'm sad."

"I think here is the safest place for us." Snape replied coolly. He could not stop his eyes from straying to her abdomen where the slightest suggestion of a bump was now protruding from her green cardigan.

"Poppy has decided to try and take care of my healthcare here, rather than risking St. Mungo's. I think she'll do great." smiled Lily.

"I'm going to write to Molly Weasley." Poppy explained. "I am sure she knows more than I do."

Lily smiled at Snape.

Snape knew he should probably ask something related to the pregnancy or birth but in all honesty, the whole thing eluded him.

He had never really had to deal with pregnant women before. Having had no siblings, no close female relatives or friends. None of his students had ever become pregnant during his time at the school (he was relieved to say!) and very rarely did they need to address pregnancy in potion making (with the exception of NEWT level 'cramp easing tonic' in which the suggestions for use included pregnancy in the third trimester).

All he knew was that Lily was pregnant, probably in the earlier stages judging by her size and was suffering from morning sickness.

"When…When do we expect…When…" Snape cleared his throat, somehow ashamed by his lack of diplomacy in discussing something that should be relatively simple for someone of his age and intelligence. "…When should I prepare the nursery for?"

Lily smiled.

"Poppy thinks that I am about Ten weeks gone."

"Oh!" Snape replied, nodding. "I see."

"You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" smiled Lily sweetly.

"…Teach me." Snape finally said.

Poppy chuckled.

"Don't worry, she'll teach you."

Lily took his hand and led him from Poppy's office and down through the corridors.

Snape's desperation to explore Lily's new figure was too much as they walked down to the dungeons. He longed to run his hands across her stomach and waist and stroke her growing bosom. He was desperate to kiss her stomach and show his excitement openly without the prying eyes of students and staff.

Walking ahead of her down the tight spiral steps to the dungeon, he looked back at her, his one hand in hers and his other ready to catch her should she fall.

She found it hilarious that he was being so cautious.

Finally they found their way back to their quarters they had abandoned a few months earlier.

Snape was relieved to find their luggage had been brought from Spinners end, and that the house elves had made the place comfortable again. Dumbledore had struck again.

Closing the door behind her, Lily smiled at Snape who gave her a mischievous grin.

"…What?" she smiled.

Scooping her up, she squealed, laughing as he gently laid her on the bed and kissed her passionately.

Kissing him back, his hands found their way to her blouse and instead of unbuttoning the delicate pearl buttons, they slipped under the tails of it and moulded around the bulge that strained at her skirt waist.

She paused kissing him and pulled away as he looked at her, his hands sculpting the miracle inside her.

She gave him a smile, her cheeks glowing with a self-awareness as he looked back at her with wonder in his black eyes.

"…Do you want to see it?"

She slipped her zip down and gently shuffled the brown skirt down so that her abdomen was fully exposed.

The smooth, white skin was swollen into what looked perfectly natural. For some reason he had imagined being slightly frightened by the look of it. After all, he had not seen Lily naked for some months…She had always hidden her body from him, he put down to her no longer feeling as attracted to him at Spinners end.

She was hiding her secret from him instead.

But the shape of her body was beautiful.

Running his hand over the curve of it, then the other…cupping it in his warm hands, he looked at her.

"…Poppy said that she's been looking into it, and the baby is around the size of an Olive."

"…How could anything so small survive?" Snape asked in a whisper.

"Because it has an Auror for a mother and a potions expert as a father." Lily smiled.

Snape smiled weakly before leaning in to kiss her softly. Lily wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately back.

Two weeks later. The school was ablaze with scandal.

Apparently, Seamus had heard from Hannah Abbot who heard from Padma Patil who heard from Nearly headless nick who had been told by Ernie Macmillan who was sworn to secrecy by Michael Corner that Professor Umbridge had been drawn away by a magic cart in the dead of night on the 15th with all of her bags surrounding her. Her sobs were heard as far up as Ravenclaw tower.

Dean had been told by Colin who had it on good authority from Ginny Weasley that The Minister for Magic had come up to the school with Ministry Officials only to leave less than 15 minutes later swearing and demanding his advisors be waiting in his office immediately.

Luna Lovegood found herself followed by gaggles of Ravenclaws desperate for a first hand account of what REALLY happened that night for weeks. Naturally, anything that Luna said was taken with a pinch of salt and treated as inadmissible.

And Neville Longbottom was encouraged to not speak about what happened in the Ministry, to which he agreed solemnly.

Somehow, as these things tend to do, word slipped out and wild rumours flew around the school about what had actually happened in the Ministry.

Apparently, Neville duelled the dark lord and a basilisk that lived in the department of mysteries came out and tried to kill Neville but he managed to blind it with the glare of a light on his wrist watch and it was dead.

Apparently, the DA broke out of school for the night, and spent it in the Hogs head pub and made up the story to cover themselves.

Apparently, several Death Eaters had been rounded up and were now in Azkaban.

But a lot of parents had made arrangements to collect their children from the school citing 'politics' and Dumbledore announced in a special assembly that Professor Umbridge had been removed from the school, Professor Lupin was to return as the DADA teacher and Professors Evans and Snape were also set to return after being unfairly fired. He also informed the students that the Ministry had no further part in the running of Hogwarts and that this may change the curriculum, but that Hogwarts would always be safe for them.

A lot of the students seemed unsettled, and a few started to shed some tears, particularly two Ravenclaw girls who were in turn embraced by their friends.

But amongst the truths and amongst the falsities.

Was one explosive rumour…

Professor Evans is pregnant.

And Professor Snape is the father!

It was all the school could discuss…it was more salacious than anything else that had happened or anything that the Daily Prophet had printed about James Potter, the Quidditch player or Wizarding playboy Sirius Black or even what they said about Dumbledore.

No doubt, those who took Muggle studies tried to divine the presence of a tell-tale weight gain in their Professor, who kept them guessing with an endless parade of baggy cardigans and layers. And the potions master was walking around with a definite spring in his step. His homework load lessened just ever so slightly. He seemed less quick to remove points from houses that weren't Slytherin. And more so, he and Professor Evans were actually holding hands in the corridors.

It was just a wild rumour. But it certainly kept people busy.

That afternoon, Lily and Snape found that they had a free afternoon and arranged to meet Sirius and James Potter to say thank you for their help at the Ministry. Lupin had declined the invite. Apparently, he had a prior engagement.

With Tonks.

At the three broomsticks, Potter had decided to get to the bottom of it once and for all.

Slamming down his Butterbeer he wiped the foam from his lips and stared at Snape as though he had just challenged him to a duel.

"Well? Is it true?"

Snape lowered his glass of Butterbeer and dabbed at his mouth with his own napkin eloquently before replying:

"…Is what true?"

"Have you got the divine and virginal Lily Evans pregnant?!" he asked, slamming his fist down on the sticky wooden table and quaking everyone's drinks.

Snape looked to Lily who just started shaking her head with a smile.

"Honesty, Prongs." scoffed Sirius. "You live in a fantasy world. But nevertheless, the question stands, Snape."

Snape looked to Lily who smiled and squeezed his hand under the table.

Snape cleared his throat awkwardly, looked towards the window and permitted himself a smile.

"Oh My God. Snape's balls work!" Sirius laughed.

Lily leaned across the table and gave him a playful shove as Potter put his hands on the top of his head and shook his head wildly.

"No, no way. No way! You did not get Evans pregnant!" Potter groaned.

Snape sighed hopelessly.

"Keep it down. We don't want it splashed all over the Prophet. You know how much Rita is having a field day with us recently." Snape whispered, leaning across the table to hush him.

"Screw her. Snape, you old dog! I had no idea you had it in you!" Sirius grinned. "I say I get you a fire whiskey, not that you need it!"

Sirius stood up.

"Lils, you fancy another Butterbeer?"

"Better not. I don't want to spend half of today in the little witches room." Lily smiled.

Potter was still shaking his head in frozen disgust.

"I can't believe you let Snivellus get you up the duff."

"Get over it Potter." sneered Snape and leaned in to kiss Lily's cheek.

"Ugh. That's gross." Potter scoffed, looking away.

"Be an adult Potter." sighed Lily, inclining her head.

Potter swallowed a few times, reached over for the rest of Sirius' fire whiskey and choked it back before wiping his mouth on his sleeve. After a few moments, he thrust his hand out to Snape and nodded to his hand to indicate he was prepared to shake.

Snape took it with caution, knowing that under Lily's eyes, Potter couldn't do anything untoward.

Potter shook it.

"Granted, I always thought I'd be the one to plant my seed in Lily Evans' fertile pastures. But good for you, I guess."

Snape saw Lily shake her head in an amused fashion before tending to the last of her Butterbeer.

Sirius came back and put the drink in front of Snape and sat down.

"I keep thinking about that Mirror in the Department of Mysteries." Potter sighed. "If it's a fortune telling mirror it's going to have a hard time making it happen with all of this crap going on. My own team have benched me for the time being."

"What did you see in the mirror Lils? You never told us." Sirius asked going to pick up his drink and then realizing it was empty.

"Oh. I…Well, I saw this…" she replied, patting her abdomen. "I saw myself pregnant."

"So, it is a future telling mirror?" Potter smiled.

Snape nodded.

"Well, I certainly hope so…" he said and reaching inside his robes, he retrieved a small wooden box. Intricately carved.

Getting to his feet, he dropped to one knee and opened the box to reveal a exquisite silver ring with a beautiful round emerald set in it.

"Lily Evans, Will you marry me?"

The End.


End file.
